Friday 31 December 2010

The Stampman UK Favourite project of 2010 blog hop challenge!

Theres a first time for everything isn't there? Well this is the first blog hop I will be doing. Hopefully I will not get confused, easily done on New Year's Eve!
If I have managed to do things correctly there should be links to the Stampman blog on my sidebar. Pop over there and join in the fun.
My favourite project is very easy for me to choose; it is my Altered Bird that takes number one spot (Followed closely by my Encouragement Emporium)
I really enjoyed altering the bird and the fact that the amazingly talented Tim Holtz visited my blog and left a comment was the icing on the top.

Here is one picture, to see and read all the details visit the original post HERE

Be blessed everyone. Hope you are all having a great New Year's Eve

Tuesday 28 December 2010

I'm Back!

Hi there. Just a very quick hello to you all. I hope you all had a wonderful christmas. We were away visiting family in the north of the UK for christmas (though were not sure if we would make it with the weather at times) Braving the conditions we made it up, twelve degrees below freezing when we arrived. It was worth it though as we had a lovely christmas with my Aunt and cousins, saw my brother and his family while we were up there too. We returned home yesterday and back at work today. Will probably not get any time over the next week to do any serious crafting as we have visitors etc etc. But watch this space...
Snowy beach

                                              Lambananas, as made famous by the Beatles
Christmas Table setting

Icicles on the Holly

Cassie opening her own presents
These are just some of my favourite pics from the last few days. Be blessed....

Monday 20 December 2010

White Christmas?

Well, after a bitterly cold day; it is snowing again! Not impressed to be honest. The novelty has worn off pretty quickly. Walking in to work on saturday I looked like the abomnible snowman by the time I got there. Then all the customers are buying as if there is going to be no food for months to come.

Still all presents are wrapped, the tree is up and with a glass of tawny port in my hand it is beginning to feel like christmas.....Pity I have to go to work tomorrow!

Happy Christmas to all of you out there in blogland; enjoy the season, be safe and blessed

Friday 17 December 2010

Work and snow!

Hi there, well I guess that at the moment I have to confess that my life has entered the rush before christmas time zone so please do not expect too much from me until after the 30th. But I will be back in full swing, I have lots of plans and projects in the pipeline so please be patient!
In other news; I opened my blogs today after work to find out that I had won one of the Artistic Stampers prizes from Artyjens splinter group tag posts. Talk about a happy chap! Especially since it's snowing again!

This was my back yard after last time's snow; don't really want anymore! Enjoy the weekend everyone and I'll try to get time to create over the next few days
Be blessed

Thursday 16 December 2010

Tim Holtz givaway over at yours artfully

http://yoursartfully.blogspot.com/ have an amazing givaway of Tim Holtz products for one lucky person, pop over and have a look. The Blog is amazing too so you will not be sorry you did!

Overtime

Hi there everyone;
Hope you are all well; after 2 days back at work I've beened sucked into christmas overtime for the next few days and then it is christmas etc etc; then mom-in-law arrives; then new year; then- well you get the picture so I am warning you now, I may not get to post daily and tim to craft will be shorter than usual so projects will be simpler or I'll be trawling my archives! Like this

The image is inkadinkadoo.
(I apologise if some pictures slip through the net and you have seen them on older posts but I'll try to keep things fresh!)
I was thrilled to log on yesterday and find that I had been featured on Paper issues; thanks guys, you made my day.
well time to start planning for the day! Take care and be blessed in whatever you do today

Tuesday 14 December 2010

Morning everyone

Hiya, just a quick little post this evening, first day back at work was suprisingly tiring.Yep that's right, I finally have a part time job after being out of work for a long time! (Just part time nothing glam and with a company I worked for before so still loads of time to play but some cash to splash on stash)
I was asked by a friend to do something to some little photo holders she had picked up. They were plain black stars on a wood base; this is what I did.
I stamped directly onto the stars with cotton stazon opaque. triple embossed with clear UTEE. The base was painted blue and a flourish stamped in white opaque. Some of my flowers to finish.
The photo's are not too good, they look better in reality.


Be blessed.

Monday 13 December 2010

Simon Says Stamp challenge Tim Technique

Another week, another challenge over at SSS&S (Link on the side bar) Well, like everyone else it is hard to choose just one but I would have to say distress ink is number one! Another is the rusty enamel.
My offering this week is a tag (no surprises there then)
I used distress inks, and enamelled techniques on the tag though it did not photograph too well. The bird die came out to play. I usedd distress ink on the bird, embossed with clear UTEE and took the texture hammer to it while it was still soft. I like the way it came out...


Enjoy your art today

Tim's tag 12 Neelz take

Well, it is all over for another year! Tag 12 done and dusted. By the time I finished this yesterday the light was too bad to photograph so here it is!
I had to cut the ornament by hand; I did not have the christmas paper or stamp so improvisation was the order of the day. The first tag I made I was not happy with so I made another which turned out better!
I used a christmas folder to emboss the background paper; highlighted with distress ink and distress stickles.
I did the ornament as per the technique but used harlequin grunge, added glitter behind the words and a couple of gems (Christmas needs bling!)
Hope you enjoy it!
Be blessed in your art today and remember that there is crafting life after the tags!

Saturday 11 December 2010

Tim's tag 11 Neelz Take

Hi there, well almost at the end of the 12 tags 2010.... what a depressing thought!  have enjoyed playing along for the first time and sharing with all the people who have been doing it too. It's great to think that there loads of people doing the same.
So, here is number 11, I did not bother to make my own stamp because I did not have a suitable die for todays tag (though I do plan on using some of his other dies to make some stamps!)
I cut the tree by hand but just used inks to colour as I do not have green distress powder. And I used white crackle paint for the snow.
I stamped the sentiment onto canvas for the book plate. Then at the last moment I added the lace to soften the look.
Enjoy!



Be blessed in your art today.

Friday 10 December 2010

Tims Tag 10 Neelz take (and a Bonus)

Hi there, a nice easy (relative to some of them!) tag from Mr Holtz this morning. I did not have the snowman die so had to improvise and mine is a fair bit smaller! I messed up on the embossing hence the banner! Works for me though! I have used the acetate embossing before but not for a while so it was good to be reminded of it. I used christmas ornaments (Yep, no snowflakes in my stuff!) I added some star gems to fill up some of the empty spaces n the sky.


During the tags I have ended up with spare tags because I tend to use them to wipe the excess paint up or mop up the leftover inks from the craft sheet so yesterday I played with a couple of those.
The first was from the colourwash from tag 7's flowers

I used craft individuals flowers to overstamp on the tag; then stamped the girl onto a nestabilities tag and used the rusty emamel technique. I think it worked really well.

But my absolute favourite has to be this next one, the tags was covered in excess pearl paint from the dabber. I coloured it with blues and LOVE the way it came out. I then embossed 2 butterflies (Cuttlebug) and brushed over with blues to highlight. Really happy with the end result




Be blessed in your art today; have fun whatever you are doing.

Thursday 9 December 2010

Play date cafe challenge 59

Over at the Play Date Cafe they have great colour combo challenges, the link is on my sidebar so go take a look. This weeks colours are great, both for contemporary christmas or general. I decided to give myself a break from christmas and did this birthday card. Hope you enjoy it.

I used the colours of the challenge plus white (and a bit of silver crept in too!) I embossed two of the cards (using Tim's technique from tag 7 to add colour in the recessed areas)
Nestabilities dies for the layers, the image is one of my own. I distressed some of the edges and used distress ink to highlight. I made the flower a while ago and that seemed to work well.
A bit of a departure from my current style but I think it works ok.

Tim's tag day 9 Neelz take

Morning everyone. Hope you are well. I would just like to say thank you first to all of you who have left such lovely comments about my take on Tim's tags; I appreciate EVERY one of them!
When I saw todays tag my first thought was oh, is that it? It just seemed to be so simple after the last few days pretty complicated and time consuming ones. Having said that; I really enjoyed doing it and love the way it turned out. Moral of the tale; don't make assumptions!
On to the tag...

I used a Crafty Individuals stamp for the background as it is the only stamp I have that has something remotely resembling music on it. I used brushed corduroy and spiced marmalade for the colour along with a generous mixture of bright gold perfect pearls; distressed the edges and coloured with walnut stain.
I used snaps instead of fasteners but smashed them with the hammer.

I had to change the words as they would not fit. My smallest font is still too big; or perhaps my rosette is too big! I used organza ribbon instead of tulle and the buttons are from my own little hoard.

The rosette; well what can I say except it was fiddly, I had to make it from scratch. You should have seen me this morning trying to freeze the video so I could count how many folds there were! Luckily for me he mentions that the folds are every quarter inch so that solved that problem. After a lot of measuring, scoring and folding I was ready for the magic press down.......... oops; too big! A bit of judicious trimming was required but I got there in the end.

Overall a lovely tag and I have to admit that it is a favourite! after number 5; and 6; and 7; and..... well you get the picture i'm sure!
Be blessed in your creativity today; keep the peace and joy of the season in your heart.

Wednesday 8 December 2010

Tim's tag no 8, Neelz take

Hi there; wellI have to say that this tag turned out very differently than Tim's; About the only thing in common is the technique!
I did not have the mask he used so decided to use the bird die. That was fun but I managed in the end with the help of a lot of post-its! I used my own street scene again, well parts of it anyway. Then I realised I had done my tag the opposite way so my corners were "wrong" So I had to rethink a bit. In the end I sat looking at it and thought that the bird was too small and the tag just was not working for me; what to do? Lightbulb moment!!!!! I had the daisy cuts from day 7 tag doing nothing so I used that, added some wire to tie in with the chimney smoke and job done. Much better... The to all a good night was done in clear on my dymo printer and stuck to canvas, distress stickle on the clock face as I did not like the white on this tag.

 An interesting tag to do; bu I know that for next year I had better get some masks, father christmas stamps, reindeer dies... the list goes on!
Be blessed in your art today

Tim's Tag 7 Neelz take.

Hi there; I am running behind as yesterday was just "one of those" days! I thought this tag was going to be great to do and I was not wrong! I am also entering this into the compendium of curiosities challenge over at L3 as it uses the technique in question which is Rock candy distress stickles. (The link to L3 is in my blog list on the side bar)
I made 2 of these tags and am pleased with the way they turned out  I pretty much did as I was told except no grunge and my canvas went a bit funny as it was not the same as the one Tim used. I only had cranberry and terracotta colourwash and I made my own perfect pearl mixture ( when I sprayed the red it looked awful; like blood so I used the oranges too and ended up with colours that look more like burnished metal than red.)


I did not have the woodgrain embossing folder so used one of the flourishes. The scrolls were cut out of canvas with a sizzix die.
I took these to show the distress stickles





Hope you had as much fun as I had doing these if you are doing them with Tim too; if not I hope you like looking at them.
Now to get cracking with tag number 8 so i'll see you all later, be blessed in your creativity today.

Monday 6 December 2010

Tim's tag no 6 Neelz take!

Hi there, it's hard to believe we are halfway through the tags isn't it? I enjoyed this one very much. I had to draw and cut the reindeer by hand as I have not got it (YET!)  And the only embossing folder that kind of worked was the bird.  No tissue tape so had to use paper and a script stamp. I love the way it came out though.

I ended up emboosing the whole tag as the powder did not stick to all of the words. It worked out well though.
Be blessed in your creativity today

Simon says stamp and show a holiday greeting

Hi there, over at SSS&S (link on my sidebar) the challenge is a greeting. Well as I am ,like half the world, busy doing Tim's tags I am doing extras too so for this week I have done a street scene tag in lovely warm winter colours mounted on a black card which I have embossed in opaque white stazon  a suitably festive greeting. I like the way this came out. I think the black really highlights the colours in the tag.
I used distress inks on the tag, the stree scene is my own design. I used mica behind the windows and tried to create the feel of everyone inside in the warmth. I splashed gold perfect pearls in the sky and used gems for stars


Be blessed in your art today, next will be tag number 6 of Tim's 12 tags......

Sunday 5 December 2010

Tims Tag day 4 and 5 Neelz take

Well, Up bright and early so got cracking on tag 5 straight away!!!!! So I can post both tags.
Tag 4 first: I have to say that I struggled a bit with the technique. Perhaps it was because of the fact I had to use fragments, or my ink just seems to dry instataneously! In the end I used the stamped and glittered technique on the tag, it looked better!


This was the best of the first technique, I think it will work better on glass perhaps
Then Tag 5. Really nice tag but one thing is VERY clear to me; I NEED to get a FATHER CHRISTMAS stamp!!!!!!!!! I do not have one and they seem to pop up a lot! Oh well, I used a snowman instead.
I really enjoyed to enamelled effect on the numbers, though I had to use pearl paint and clear UTEE.
My distress powders tend to be dull colours so I had to adapt the colours to suit. again this was something I had not done before and enjoyed it.

Be blessed in your art today.