Thursday 29 September 2011

Blog Candy Giveaway at The Stamp Man

Good morning everyone,
Just a quick heads up about The Stamp Man's giveaway. The link is on my side bar and up for grabs is one of their VERY LIMITED EDITION "Old Bags" A whole bag of goodies to play with wrapped in a beautiful "old Bag"
Follow the link to get all the details and I hope you have a lovely day!

Wednesday 28 September 2011

WOYWW 121

Hi there everyone; yes it's Wednesday so time to satisfy yourself that you are NOT the only one with a desk that looks like a war zone (Or that perhaps you are!) All the action is over at Julia's place as always and you are all invited.........
My desk this week is embarrassingly chaotic, but in my defence I've not been feeling great the last couple of days and I have a class on Friday and a demo day on Saturday so I've been trying to prep away inbetween normal life and work!
Still, here we go
Here's the usual overview shot; doesn't look too bad from here.......
On the left hand side there are some new stamps that popped through my door a couple of days ago from the lovely Toodles and Binks. These were the ones I was fortunate to win from her a couple of WOYWW's ago and she also generously sent the bottom plate of sewing ephemera stamps too which my wife was very pleased to see! Aren't I blessed?

Then in the centre is a journal page I'm working on using the Dina Wakely stamp from Ally Pally. I LOVE this image! To the right you can see some floral trim. I got this at Ally Pally and I've been cutting pieces off and using it to mop up colours from my craft sheet which works a treat. The large earring on the left is something I've been using to stamp texture onto my page with paint.

Then on the far right there are some paints I've been using and a pile of stuff from Ally Pally I've not had time to sort out yet so it's all just shoved to one side at the moment waiting for a gap in my schedule to get sorted! You may just see the Tim Holtz Christmas charms peeking out from the bottom. I thought the zipper flowers were unusual and the tiddly alphabet stamps are perfect for journals.
Now I need to crack on with the rest of the prep so hopefully I'll catch up with you later. Until them, be blessed in your creative journey......

Tuesday 27 September 2011

Craft Barn Calendar challenge week 4

Good morning everyone.
I can't believe that over at The Craft Barn we are on week four already! I'm first up this week with my 12 x 12 page. We are working with masks this week. Here is my page for you. As usual; all the details are on the Craft Barn Blog HERE


This project is taking shape nicely and I'm so pleased that I will have a decent sized diary for next year. (Can't believe I'll be so organised!)
Also just a reminder that on Saturday there is a minifest at The Craft Barn with 7 demonstrators so if you are in the area and stuck for Christmas card ideas this year, do come along to see us.
Enjoy the rest of the day and have some creative fun!

Monday 26 September 2011

A busy few days

Hi there everyone,
Well it's been a busy few days so lets catch up a bit. Firstly, Over at The Stamp Man on Friday it was the start of a new challenge, pears or pairs. I couldn't take photo's of my project because my daughter swiped my camera and toodled off to school with it, so later than expected, here is my project.
 I made a 6 x 6 journal  using silver aged mirri card which I then finished with a thin coat of diamond glaze which gave it a lovely shine. I stamped the butterfly from The Tracey Coates Aspects of design stamp onto white shrink plastic twice and adhered them to the cover. I did the same with the smaller ones but punched a hole before shrinking and made a charm for the book.

The Dream title is Vintage market cut in black and a bit of metallic paint rubbed over. There's loads more inspiration over on the blog so do pop on over and join in the fun. We also have a new DT member, the lovely Siobhan from Recovering Stampaholic. Great to have you on board Siobhan!

So what else has been going on? Well seeing as it was the last weekend that my MIL was here we wanted it to be memorable so on Friday we popped off to the theatre to see Dreamboats and Petticoats which was utterly fabulous. real toe- tapping music from her generation but we loved it too.
Saturday we went to Tudeley church to see the stained glass windows which were all done by Marc Chagall, beautiful colours and free flowing designs. Here's one picture

Then yesterday it was off to Ally Pally! We got there early as always and sat and had breakfast before joining the queues. I had a wonderful day, chatted to loads of lovely people, It was lovely to see you Brenda and Alison. I also met some new folks and, of course, broke the budget! Still, it's all my wife's fault really as she bought me some fabulous bits and pieces too. So I guess you're all curious to see?
Here's some of it
Well, I got the new Tim Holtz joyful song stamp set, two stunning Dina Wakely stamps which I fell in love with. The other stamps I bought are the beautiful Sweet Pea fairy stamps; one set rather steampunky, the others more gothic/manga style to me.
Some cotton reels, lace, metal trims, masks and embossing folders. Some zipper flowers and I succumbed to Tim's Christmas charms even though I do think they are fairly pricey!
And of course, the picket fence distress stain so I can see what all the fuss is about for myself!
There is more, some fabulous books, paper, glues, gems etc. All the basics.
Oh well, where do I start, what shall I use first? Oops can't; got to get MIL to the airport, darn it!
Have a fabulous day everyone and I'll see you later!

Thursday 22 September 2011

Craft Barn Calendar week 3

Hi there,
Just a quick heads up about my page for The Craft Barn Calendar challenge this week which is up on the CB blog.
Do pop on over and take a look to see the details of what I've done and let the guys know you've been there!

No stamp required

Good morning everyone and welcome to my new followers; I do hope you enjoy travelling along with my creative journey.
Yesterday I struggled to get my creative juices flowing a bit but thought that I'd start to play around with one of the new Tando printers trays (available from The Craft Barn)
What appealed to me about these straight away was the fact that they are made up of layers that you glue together so I thought that it would be great to create windows to hold things inside.
I started by taking some Crafty Individuals sea themed images from one of their books and cutting and layering up to fit the base layer. Then on the second layer I cut part of the largest image again and fastened that down for added dimension
I added some "sand" and tiny shells to some of the compartments along with some little sea embellishments after which I then added a sheet of acetate before gluing the final window layer.
I coloured the frame and stand with broken china distress stains and Americana acrylic paint in celery green

For my first attempt I'm pretty pleased with the outcome; though after I'd glued it down I realised I'd forgotten to do some little finishing details I'd intended but was not going to risk damaging it so just left it!

So, now I know how it works I can start of some of the others that I have in my minds eye, though with loads of stamping and inking this time!
Hope you all have a lovely and creative Thursday.

Wednesday 21 September 2011

WOYWW 120

Good morning all, to coin a phrase often heard on a certain radio channel; "Happy Wednesday Everyone"
Yep, Julia's world wide party over at Stamping Ground.
My desk this week is about the same as the current weather; miserable! One of those dull drizzly days. Still in the spirit of the day I'll let you peek....
So, whassup , apart from dull gloomy light? On the left is my new TH autumn leaf die and a Christmas stamp that I THINK I know what I'm going to do with.
In the middle there are a couple of scraps that I was trying to get inspiration from (Didn't work) and there's also a little book for my small individual ATC stamps. Yes we can take a closer look.
I thought I was quite clever with this. To get the colour mixes with these you need to cut a few at once (I did six)When I had used the first lot I realised I needed storage so I took and empty UTEE bottle and used the die insert to wrap around it and hey presto,  a picture to remind me and another jar saved from the bin!
This is the cover for the stamps; nice and simple. I'm also busy with two larger ones for my expanding collection of TH stamps. (Well, I can't help it if they call out to me every time I walk past them, can I?)
 Lastly, I picked this up the other day at a charity shop, little photo album. Will keep you posted when it's done.
So that's your lot from me today. Hope you all have a lovely day, I'd better get back there as there's a printers tray with my name on it, and I still need to do those Christmas cards, and the journalling class, and, well you get the picture I'm sure....... Bless you one and all.

Tuesday 20 September 2011

It's a beautiful world.......

Good morning everyone. I trust that this finds you well.
Over at Try it on Tuesday this week our challenge inspiration comes from Louie Armstrong's "It's a beautiful world" A sentiment I wholeheartedly agree with! If we listen to the news too much we begin to feel down as there seems to be nothing but bad and sad news so sometimes you need to take a deep breath and pause for a while and look around you; it will lift your soul when you see the beauty around you.
I took my inspiration this week from Autumn to create this tag. (It may have had something to do with the fact I got Tim's new die?!)
I used Umbrella man as the starting point, stamped in brown and outline with a black glitter pen. The tag was coloured with vintage photo distress stain. I then cut out the die in about 6 different cards to give myself a lot to play with and built up the foliage before adding some hand drawn veins and details. I also added a bit of distress ink to add some depth. To me, it speaks of though the days are beginning to darken and the weather may not be so great; there is still so much to enjoy outdoors, and, being British, we always have an umbrella to hand!
To finish I added the sentiment and stamped the small flourish from the Christmas mini holidays plate (My new fav stamp!)
Hope you all have a creative and blessed day today.

Monday 19 September 2011

A Katzelkraft journal and a box

Hi there everyone. I've decided I'm useless at catchy titles for my blog posts!
Anyway, I do hope you are all well. Over at Katzelkraft today I'm sharing this little journal....
All the details are HERE along with a more detailed picture of the tile if you want to pop on over.
The stamps are available direct from France or here in the UK you can get them from The Craft Barn

I've also been enjoying making this box just for fun, nothing inside yet but I'm sure i'll think of something!
I covered the box with plaster of paris bandages and when dry I started adding layers of paints, so many I can't remember what! but there's black brown yellow green etc etc...... Then I used inka gold in lava green to give a lovely sheen to it. The coaster was one I'd altered a little while ago and then I used some old flowers and chain too. I'll probably add more to it but thought I'd share it now as I think it looks pretty cool.

Have a lovely creative afternoon everyone. Bless you all.

Friday 16 September 2011

Grungy Monday and Simon says.......

Good morning all.
Hope you are all well. I've been so busy with other stuff at the moment that trying to carve out time just for making something because I want to has been difficult but I managed to get onto Simon says Stamp and show some STEAMPUNK and then Studio L3 grungy Monday is looking at Tim Holtz fragments; the link to Tim's post is HERE.
So naturally I decided to combine the two and did this tag
I used Tim's "stained imagery" for the fragment and my image is from an old Victorian Inventions book showing the inside of a fob watch.
I cut two tags, one from corrugated card and trimmed down. On the base tag I added some tissue tape along the bottom and coloured with aged mahogany distress ink.
The corrugated tag was coloured with distress stains in crushed olive and wild honey and then I added a wash of perfect pearls and yellow re-inker to add sparkle.
The strip of paper came out of my scrap pile so not sure of all the colours but it has walnut stain and distress crackle rock candy there.... I stamped the small flourish from Mini holidays down it before gluing it down
I added the cogs and gears from old watches, edged parts with Tea stain mica chips (Lovely stuff!) along the base I added the pen nib. I added the adage ticket sentiment to a bookplate and filled with crackle before adding to the tag along with the ribbons to finish.
So, it may be small but it is something just for fun and not DT work so I'm happy!
Enjoy your Friday everyone and be blessed in your creative journey!

Wednesday 14 September 2011

WOYWW 119

Goodly mornin all.
I know a lot of us say this every week but it's true; where does the time go! Blink and it's wednesday again.....
Two things this morning; firstly, over at The Craft Barn we are continuing apace with the calender challenge and are are on week 2 (Have you joined in yet?) 12 weeks of fab inspiration, calenders of all shapes and sizes.Today it's my second week offering and all the details and step by step can be found HERE so I hope you'll take a look.

I'm doing a 12 x 12 page per month and will bind it all when finished to give myself a diary to keep my crafty dates etc in next year; organised or what hey?!

Anyways, onto the desk........ that's what you really want to see, as always hosted by Julia over at Stamping Ground

Here's the usual overview shot (And for all of those who had something to say about the size of my coffee mug last week,it's true, i'm a coffee fan, but this week it's in a travel mug because it stays warmer longer on chilly mornings!)
So, what can you spy.......
Rosettes; I find it easier to make a few at a time so yesterday I was feeling rather mojo-less so I did my two usual things; had a tidy and made something that does not really need inspiration but is fun nevertheless.
Now however I need to address my chrimbo in September phobia as it's the Christmas card minifest at The Craft Barn on October 1st and I need to be able to show something while i'm demoing don't I?
So, armed with card blanks and a Tim Holtz stamp set, let the "battle" commence.........
Then I thought I'd show you the behind my chair view as I re jigged that.....

And lastly, these new drawer units that my wife bought me; she knows me well! At the moment they are labelled with post its until I get round to doing them properly but they house perfect pearls, glues dots and pads etc etc.

Then lastly but by no means least, I took part in Frankie's birdcage swap and was thrilled to receive this lovely offering from Julia which is now on the wall for me to enjoy so thank you very much!
To the left of it is a card made by the lovely Janet which I love and on the right is a card I made using one of my favourite drawings of Aragorn from The Lord of the Rings.
So that's my world today, hope to pop over to visit yours too.... be blessed in your creativity today.

Tuesday 13 September 2011

Old but new over at Try it on Tuesday

Hi there everyone
It's tag week over at Try it on Tuesday and this week we want you to dig out a stamp that you've had for ages but never actually used!
I know that I sometimes bought a stamp because it caught my eye in the shop, or it was on offer but when I got it home I wondered why I bought it! This stamp is one such a stamp, a Papermania medallion stamp......
So out it came, blinking in the sun and was used to create the background on this tag.
 I used aged mahogany and pine needles distress ink to colour the tag, liberally sprayed with water and when dry stamped the design in coffee archival ink.
The acetate and glittered butterfly was toned down to suit with alcohol ink and attached.
I made a ruffle with Tim Holtz tissue tape and used some glittered green ribbon to edge it. I used the same ribbon with some other fibres for the top too.
Now that I've hauled it out I think it will appear as a background design more than once as I like it  rather than  the usual cut and layered effect these stamped are normally used for! There is loads more samples and inspiration from the rest of the team over at Try it on Tuesday so hopefully I'll see you there......
Have a fab day everyone and enjoy your creative journey.

Monday 12 September 2011

Alcohol inks.....

Good morning everyone.
Hope you all had a great weekend; today I thought I'd share some of what we did at my Alcohol ink class at The Craft Barn yesterday. It was great fun so thank you to the ladies who attended, I enjoyed it very much and hope you lot did too!
We explored some of the different techniques over the course of the day; seeing how the inks reacted with various surfaces and then inking a tin and stamping, heat embossing and then removing some ink.

We looked at inking fragments and stamping with archival ink and removing it to create decorated fragments


We were then using the inks to decorate an acetate and chipboard album using Katzelkraft Vinci Vitruve and Vinci Joconde A5 plates. These amazing stamps are available direct from Katzelkraft in France or exclusively in the UK at The Craft Barn

For the album cover we used glossy accents and white tissue to "capture" a feather and glitters and micro beads behind the inked and stamped acetate.


Some of the other pages in the album.......





Using Gesso and alcohol inks......

So, loads of pictures today so hope you enjoyed taking a peek and that you all go and have a lovely creative day today.

Friday 9 September 2011

Stamp Man - monochrome

Good afternoon everybody
Over at The Stamp Man it's time for a new challenge again; this time it's monochrome: White and ONE other colour........
Here is my card
I started with a white card blank and cut two mats, one in green and one in white. On the white card I used crushed olive distress ink and a harlequin mask to add colour then lightly blended over the whole piece to colour. I stamped the script in green ink too. I stamped and cut out the antique keys stamp and mounted onto another piece of green and cut out. I used 3d pads to mount onto the card and then added some little green gems to finish.
There's a bit of a close up. I'm sending this to the family who have just moved in next door but one to welcome them to the neighbourhood so I hope they like green!
Well, I'd better get back to prepping for Sunday's class so hope you all have a good afternoon and that your creative time is fun.

Wednesday 7 September 2011

WOYWW 118

Good morning all. After a miserable wet day yesterday there is a modicum of sunshine out there today and it's nice and dry(ish)
Welcome to the weekly peek at my creative space; hosted, as ever, by the lovely Julia over at Stamping Ground. I think my desk is pretty interesting today, even if I do say so myself!

so; what are the highlights? Firstly, this fabulous book I found at a charity shop all about Victorian inventions with loads of brilliant illustrations. Perfect for a book I'm working on!

Then there is some old jewellery I received from a friend. And in the back you can see the beginnings of a book cover and the altered wooden coaster I've done.


Then lastly there is the beginnings of another book. This started out as a piece of scrap card I used to mop up some stray inks but then I thought it matched the corrugated card pretty well so an idea was born!
And, I've shocked myself too by actually making my first Christmas tag! It's all your fault with your talk of chrimbo and showing off your 250th card!

I've also been busy making my tag for Frankie's swap this morning too, but I had to move that out of the way so that the recipient didn't see it! So, there's my space; pop the kettle on; I'll try to nip round to yours later! Be blessed in your creative journey