Carte Blanche for Blossoms & Bookpages!

Goodly afternoon!  Ooh I love it when a plan comes together!  It isn't often that I think of a project and actually make it so it looks like it did in my head.  This project started out in my head looking like... well, exactly like the finished article!  Unusual for me, I usually just slap stuff anywhere and faff around for hours trying to get things to look right.  Over on the Creative Carte Blanche blog, I chose the theme for July, Blossoms & Bookpages.  I chose the theme because I wanted to make this project... and being of slatternly persuasion, it is oft the case I will not end up making something because other things get in the way.  Perfect excuse to get my fingers inky and make something for the living room too.

I bought an old copy of Hans Christian Anderson's childrens stories a few months ago from a charity booksale... it cost me the princely sum of 50p.  One of the stories is Thumbelina.... I have a bit of an addition to fuchsias... well, actually, a lot of an addiction (I have 79 different varieties now *see, told ya, addicted*) and it just so happens there is a new fuchsia called Thumbelina.  I also have the Heartfelt Creations Fuchsia Dies... so... put them together and you get this project!

The shadowbox is from The Range and is 8" x 8", I smidged a wee bit of black paint onto the bare wood, sanded it back and then blended Ground Espresso DI over the surface to get this nice aged look. 

The fuchsias were made by sticking the bookpages onto card, die cutting the shapes and inking with Picked Raspberry and Wilted Violet DI's to get the colours and then assembling the blooms.  The stems of the flowers are thin strips of bookpage/cardstock inked with Peeled Paint and the branches were made (very fiddly-diddly) by twisting bookpages around wire then inking with the green ink plus a smidge of Frayed Burlap.  The base inside is more bookpages, collages, knocked back with Antique Linen and Bundled Sage Distress Paint, splattered with Peeled Paint and Bundled Sage Distress Spray and then gently inked with more Ground Espresso to bring the whole design together.

I decided against adding any embellies (I know, what???) and wordage as I want the blooms to really stand out, it is simple but so pretty I didn't want to take away any limelight from those fuchsias.  Anyways... that's it really... I spent ages making this... the blooms are pretty easy to put together but it was the placement of them and the wrapping of the wire and making sure that it looked exactly like it did in my head...  Thanks for looking, have a grand weekend!  TTFN

Hels x

Sunday Stamper - Week 368 - Pipes of Peace

Goooodly Morning Stampers and a very happy blustery  Sunday to you all!  Thanks for your entries into the last challenge... twas great to see your lovely vintage makes!  This week the theme is ... PEACE.   To join in with the challenge is simples: make a little something; a card, canvas, ATC, a piece of altered art... the choice.. it be yours! Add in some stamping and then hop back here, leave me a comment with a link to the place you are showing your entry and I can come see you.   If you haven't got a blog, you can join in via Facebook (just tag me name) or by emailing a small res.pic to me or by leaving me a link to your Pinterest or any other photo hosting site.  The challenge will remain open until 21:00 Saturday 19th December 2015.
 

I have made a tag for my entry this week - it is a size 8 manila and covered with Tim's gorgeous new Christmas papers - these colours are right up my street for Christmas and the patterns are so vintage and nostalgic looking.  Once the tag was covered, I knocked back the print on the paper a little bit rubbing a bit of Antique Linen Distress Paint over and smudging with my fingers... then blending Fired Brick and Ground Espresso DI's around the edge.

I used the new Distress Splatter Brush to add speckles of Peeled Paint Distress Paint to the background (my new fave tool!) and then die cut some flowers - Tattered Florals as usual to make the rose which was edged with Fired Brick DI and splattered with Antique Linen DP to add speckles... and some leaves using the Winter Greens Thinlets die and the same papers.  I made a bow using Crinkle Ribbon coloured with Fired Brick DI and popped a few little resin roses and some pearly swirls on to add a bit of extra dimension.  The sentiment was stamped onto one of the little labels in the paper pack and 3d'd onto the tag.

As usual I am rushing around so a short and sweet post from me today... please do check back soon tho as I have been playing with the new Distress Mosaic kit and having a right old ball!   Thanks for looking, have a grand Sunday!  TTFN

Hels x

Sunday Stamper - Week 366 - Imagine

Goooodly Morning Stampers and a very happy  Sunday to you all!  Thanks for your entries into the last challenge... it was nice to see some new peeps entering too, so thank you!  This week is a nice easy theme... just use the word IMAGINE.   To join in with the challenge is simples: make a little something; a card, canvas, ATC, a piece of altered art... the choice.. it be yours! Add in some stamping and then hop back here, leave me a comment with a link to the place you are showing your entry and I can come see you.   If you haven't got a blog, you can join in via Facebook (just tag me name) or by emailing a small res.pic to me or by leaving me a link to your Pinterest or any other photo hosting site.  The challenge will remain open until 21:00 Saturday 21st November 2015.

My entry this week is a class sample from a few weeks ago.  As you all know, I loves Distress and especially Distress Paints... I love the freedom they give me to smoosh the colours around a project.  I used Mowed Lawn, Mermaid Lagoon, Broken China and Cracked Pistachio Distress Paints on this project... there's Ranger's Texture Paste on there too under the paints, smooshed on thru Tim's Flourish Layering Stencil... I used my magic little Stabilo All pencil to add shading around the stencilling to make it pop from the background a bit.

The decoration is made using Tim's Perspective butterfly, stamped three times, cut out so it is smaller with each layer and coloured with Cracked Pistachio, Twisted Citron and Spiced Marmalade.   I added buttons, pearls and little star gems which I coloured with Treasure Gold so they were metallic rather than just being any old colour.  I also used the Ornate Frame die, Tim's new Sprig punch (this is FAB) and Tim's Mixed Media diecuts on the canvas and the words is formed of letter from his Alphabet Thinlets dies.   Around the edge of the canvas I did my usual two tone look - I know, I do this all the time but I like the look of it!

That's all for today... I hope you have a cracking day whatever you have planned... thanks for looking and... TTFN

Hels x

Feeling A Little Wilted... Violet!

... I dunno, I turn me back for five minutes and three weeks has whizzed past!  I have been busy playing with some of the new Distress Ink colours that have now arrived in the Room of Stash... I have been longing for a proper grey colour in the range for about 381 years and finally my wish is fulfilled with Hickory Smoke.  I know it has been out since June but I have only just managed to get me mitts on it!  Of course, it would be rude not to give Wilted Violet a new home too...

I made a nice inky background using both these colours in Distress Paints... I love the smooshyness of a Distress Paint and the fact that the colour co-ordinate perfectly with the inks is a bonus too.  Once the background was dry, I used two different Layering Stencils to add Hickory Smoke and Wilted Violet ink over the background for a little added interest.  How gorgeous is that stamp???  It is from Carabelle Studio and is my new fave so expect to see it on everything :O))  I stamped using Jet Black Archival and then stamped again onto cream card and cut out a few of the butterflies, coloured them and then added little twists of rusty wire for bodies.  The tag is not quite finished as it needs a tonne of embellies adding to it but you get the gist!

I will be back tomorrow with a new Sunday Stamper theme.... I have decided that my hit and miss approach to the Sunday Stamper needs to stop and I need to get back to being regular with it... so from tomorrow onwards, it will be a fortnightly challenge... that way I have no excuse to miss a week!  My Mojo is still lurking somewhere on the boundaries of my periferal vision... I am hoping that a good clean and tidy of the Room of Stash next week will prompt some inky action!  Watch this space!  Thanks for looking... hope you are having a grand weekend.  TTFN

Hels x

Curiously Monoprint...

Gooooodly Morning to all you lovely Compendium-ers!  Today sees the start of the very last Compendium of Curiosities 3 Challenge *sad face*.  To see all the details on how to join in with the challenge, CLICK HERE.  Also, if you pop across to Linda's blog, you will see all gorgeous creations that my talented teamies on the Curiosity Crew have made... they never cease to amaze me with their inspirational ideas and art!   The challenge is sponsored by the Funkie Junkie Boutique this time... so you will have a chance of winning a very generous Gift Certificate to spend there.  Tim & Mario have, as ever, very kindly donated goodies for an extra prize... which will be awarded to the "Curiosity Crew's Choice"... so you have two chances of winning fabby prizes!  If you haven't got your Compendium book just yet, you can order a signed copy directly from the man himself... HERE.  And... Linda has also done a FAQ page for you.. HERE it is... all the info you will need is listed there.   This week we are turning to Page 48 of the book and trying out the Layering Stencils Monoprint technique.  As ever with the Compendium Challenge, neither I, nor the Curiosity Crew, will be posting the technique instructions and participants must not do so either. We all want to encourage people to buy Tim's awesome book; giving away the instructions wouldn’t be fair to him. Linda will have no choice but to un-link any entries that don’t follow this rule.  

I absolutely LOVE this technique and had much fun playing and using different colours.. so much so, I was in a quandry which tag to choose to show you!  I plumped for this one as it is lovely and bright and uses my fave stencil... the Flourish one.  As ever, it is a tag I am offering and yes, there be little snippets of my harlequin stamp on there... well, it is the last challenge of the book so I had to use it!

I chose Distress Inks and used Twisted Citron, Fossilized Amber, Picked Raspberry and Mermaid Lagoon for the technique.  I decided to keep the embellies simple... then got all over excited and started layering up paper flowers, colouring Idea-ology Foliage with Distress Paint and generally going for it instead of keeping it simple.  Well, I do find it really hard to leave the embellies off... and it is the last challenge so it would be rude not to... right?

I just want to say a mahooosive thank you to Linda for organising these fab challenges... and to my lovely teamies on the Curiosity Crew, it has been a magnificent 34 weeks working alongside them... and I am still so honoured to have been asked to take part in the challenges.  Also, thank you to each and everyone of you who has left me comments... and to everyone who has joined in with the challenges each time - it has been great to see all your fab interpretations of the techniques and themes.  Don't forget, you have two whole weeks to enter the challenge... and a bat at the chance of grabbing the Crew's Choice prize which is a mahooosive haul of stash donated personally by Tim & Mario... so if you are joining in, remember to comment on all the Crew's blogs and you will be in with a chance of winning that too *believe me, this is one gigantic pile of goodies*!  Thanks for looking, have an inky and inspirational day!  TTFN

Hels x

Curiously Altered...

Gooooodly Morning to all you lovely Compendium-ers!  Today sees the start of another brand new Compendium of Curiosities 3 Challenge.  To see all the details on how to join in with the challenge, CLICK HERE.  Also, if you pop across to Linda's blog, you will see all gorgeous creations that my talented teamies on the Curiosity Crew have made... they never cease to amaze me with their inspirational ideas and art!   The challenge is sponsored by the Inspiration Emporium this time... so you will have a chance of winning a very generous Gift Certificate to spend there.  Tim & Mario have, as ever, very kindly donated goodies for an extra prize... which will be awarded to the "Curiosity Crew's Choice"... so you have two chances of winning fabby prizes!  If you haven't got your Compendium book just yet, you can order a signed copy directly from the man himself... HERE.  And... Linda has also done a FAQ page for you.. HERE it is... all the info you will need is listed there.   This week we are turning to Page 45 of the book and trying out the Altered Surfaces technique.  As ever with the Compendium Challenge, neither I, nor the Curiosity Crew, will be posting the technique instructions and participants must not do so either. We all want to encourage people to buy Tim's awesome book; giving away the instructions wouldn’t be fair to him. Linda will have no choice but to un-link any entries that don’t follow this rule.  

I had much fun playing with this technique.  I made *another* tag for my collection.  This one started off with a piece of Tim's Correspondance papers laid over the tag and stuck down with Glue & Seal.  I wanted the paper to be more in the background so I knocked it back with a wash of Antique Linen Distress Paint, watered down and applied with Cut & Dry foam... this lets the pattern still show but not as brightly.  I edged the tag with Walnut Stain DI just to age it up a bit.  Of course, there has to be some stamping so I used my little harlequin stamp and Jet Black Archival ink.

I used Tim's Flourish Stencil and Wendy's Black Embossing Paste... then sprinkling Ranger's Queen's Gold embossing powder over the embossing paste.  Once the paste had dried, I heated up the embossing powders so they melted onto the textured surface.  I love this technique!  The heart is sticky back canvas stuck to Grungeboard, die cut using a Movers & Shapers heart, sprayed with Fired Brick Distress Spray Stain and then wrapped with a bit of rusty wire.  I added on my "altered surfaces" and a bit of flower trim and voila, finished!

Don't forget, you have two whole weeks to enter the challenge... and a bat at the chance of grabbing the Crew's Choice prize which is a mahooosive haul of stash donated personally by Tim & Mario... so if you are joining in, remember to comment on all the Crew's blogs and you will be in with a chance of winning that too *believe me, this is one gigantic pile of goodies*!  Thanks for looking, have an inky and inspirational day!  TTFN

Hels x

It's Been A Long Time!

...indeedily it has!   What with one thing and another, my poor old blog has been neglected but hopefully things are starting to gain some equilibrium now and I can start to get back to normal service.  Thank you for thinking of me and Grim and for you safe wishes for us.  We are safely back from holibobs - what an amazing adventure we had - and thankfully weren't caught up in the horror in Sousse.  It would be remiss of me not to mention that my heart goes out to all those who were involved in that mindless atrocity.

I have had a few things going on of late - personal stuff, health stuff... not only my health but also my AlfieCat who has become ill recently, that has been most worrying as you can imagine.  He is now on medication and, fingers crossed very tightly, seems to be responding to the treatment.  He needs to have more tests with the *whispers* V E T next week and all being well they will bring goodly news for us all.

With all that going on I haven't really had chance to catch up or to get into the Room of Stash.  The canvas I am showing you here is one I made in class at the end of May (yes, I am that far behind!) and also... is inspired by my canvas I did for Craft Stamper which hit the shelves last Friday.  It is so nice to be back in the magazine!  HERE's a linky to the Craft Stamper blog where you can find details of the new challenge and other fun stuff too.

I shall away now... my Room looks like Miss Haversham's dining room... knee deep in dust and cobwebs and looking ever so slightly neglected... I need to get tidied up and clean up and then I can get inky!  Thanks for looking.. have a grand evening.  TTFN

Hels x

Fly Free....

...I know, don't all pass out... I am blogging for the third time this week! Yikes!  Does this mean I am finally catching up on stuff I have been letting slip???  Hopefully!!!  Anyways... here is today's offering:  last month I did a demo weekend over at Daisy's Jewels in Coventry and was concentrating on all things Tim and Ranger.  I used a big Size 12 Ranger Manila tag for the base of my creation....

Using Distress Paints: Scattered Straw, Antique Linen and Frayed Burlap, mixed and marbled for the background coverage, I then used Tim's Blossom Layering Stencil and added Vintage Photo Distress Ink over the stencil and around the edges of the tag to add a bit of vintageness.

The rose is made from Tim's Jumbo Tattered Florals die... this is a big beauty.. around 5" in size... wow!  I added in a few leaves and some Winter Greens and then die cut the letters from Tim's new Alphabet Thinlets dies... A few bits of the new Mixed Media Thinlets in black card to add a bit of definition for the design and a few little butterflies from Tim's Watercolor stamp set, these were stamped onto card I coloured with Distress Paints and I added little twists of rusty wire for the bodies.  Voila, one finished jumbo tag!

I shall away now... I have a tonne of things to do before my weekend trip to... Scotland!  Oh yesh, my very first visit to teach in Bonnie Scotland at The Papeterie... I am really excited and so looking forward to visiting... I am rather keeping my fingers x'd that there will be a square sausage for breakfast one morning ;o))  *yes, always about the food!*     Thanks for looking.. have a great evening!  TTFN

Hels x

Curiously Eroded.....

Gooooodly Morning to all you lovely Compendium-ers!  Today sees the start of another brand new Compendium of Curiosities 3 Challenge.  To see all the details on how to join in with the challenge, CLICK HERE.  Also, if you pop across to Linda's blog, you will see all gorgeous creations that my talented teamies on the Curiosity Crew have made... they never cease to amaze me with their inspirational ideas and art!   The challenge is sponsored by the Inspiration Emporium this time... so you will have a chance of winning a very generous Gift Certificate to spend there.  Tim & Mario have, as ever, very kindly donated goodies for an extra prize... which will be awarded to the "Curiosity Crew's Choice"... so you have two chances of winning fabby prizes!  If you haven't got your Compendium book just yet, you can order a signed copy directly from the man himself... HERE.  And... Linda has also done a FAQ page for you.. HERE it is... all the info you will need is listed there.   This week we are turning to Page 44 of the book and trying out the Eroded Metallic technique.  As ever with the Compendium Challenge, neither I, nor the Curiosity Crew, will be posting the technique instructions and participants must not do so either. We all want to encourage people to buy Tim's awesome book; giving away the instructions wouldn’t be fair to him. Linda will have no choice but to un-link any entries that don’t follow this rule.  

My entry this time is another tag for the collection.  I used Cracked Pistachio, Bundled Sage and Mermaid Lagoon Distress Paints and Brushed Pewter Metallic Distress Paint.  Once I had done the technique and got the look I wanted, I gave the tag a quick slap of Glue & Seal to.. um.. seal it!  Here's the tag before I decorated it... 'scuse the shiny bit... I can't for the life of me take a decent photo!

A smidge of stamping using my little harlequin and Jet Black Archival Ink and edging with a black Sharpie to just give the whole design a frame, I then moved on to making a big fat rose embellishment.  This was made by cutting three Tattered Florals flowers from manila card and colouring with the same Distress Inks and overstamping with my fave Studio 490 background stamp.  I then assembled the flowers into a rose and added a couple of leaves and a few Winter Green diecuts to finish it.   The little Heirloom Roses were coloured with Pool Alcohol Ink.

The Ornate Plate was coloured with Cracked Pistachio and Mermaid Lagoon Distress Paints... dried off and then I smudged a bit of Black Archival over to age it up a bit.  The centre for the Ornate Plate was made using more card and DP's and Tim's word from the Stuff to Say stamp set.  A little bit of ribbon to finish and voila!  Another finished tag for the collection.

Apologies for being missing in action for the past couple of weeks.. I have an incredibly good excuse tho!  I have Ellen visiting from America and all thoughts of blogville and such-like have gone right out of the window as we've been gadding off into the wilds of Yorkshire and have been a tad busy sitting around yakking all day! Bad girl!  I will be back to normal service this coming week tho :O)    Don't forget, you have two whole weeks to enter the challenge... and a bat at the chance of grabbing the Crew's Choice prize which is a mahooosive haul of stash donated personally by Tim & Mario... so if you are joining in, remember to comment on all the Crew's blogs and you will be in with a chance of winning that too *believe me, this is one gigantic pile of goodies*!  Thanks for looking, have an inky and inspirational day!  TTFN

Hels x

Curiously Frameworked...

Gooooodly Morning to all you lovely Compendium-ers!  Today sees the start of another brand new Compendium of Curiosities 3 Challenge.  To see all the details on how to join in with the challenge, CLICK HERE.  Also, if you pop across to Linda's blog, you will see all gorgeous creations that my talented teamies on the Curiosity Crew have made... they never cease to amaze me with their inspirational ideas and art!   The challenge is sponsored by the Inspiration Emporium this time... so you will have a chance of winning a very generous Gift Certificate to spend there.  Tim & Mario have, as ever, very kindly donated goodies for an extra prize... which will be awarded to the "Curiosity Crew's Choice"... so you have two chances of winning fabby prizes!  If you haven't got your Compendium book just yet, you can order a signed copy directly from the man himself... HERE.  And... Linda has also done a FAQ page for you.. HERE it is... all the info you will need is listed there.   This week we are turning to Page 64 of the book and playing with Framework Alterations Dies.  As ever with the Compendium Challenge, neither I, nor the Curiosity Crew, will be posting the technique instructions and participants must not do so either. We all want to encourage people to buy Tim's awesome book; giving away the instructions wouldn’t be fair to him. Linda will have no choice but to un-link any entries that don’t follow this rule.  

As ever, I have made a tag for my entry.  Before I waffle on alarmingly about how I made my tag, I will answer a few comments I have been left have suggested that the Curiosity Crew's entries are all "way out there" and "I'd never be able to make that"  So, this week I have done a really simple tag... that way, if you are a bit daunted by this world of Distress, you can start off with a nice easy project... feel free to use this design if you would like to... just let me know you have so I can come and visit you.

To start the tag, I scribbled Bundled Sage, Stormy Sky and Cracked Pistachio Distress Paint onto my craft sheet and spritzed with water, I then dipped and dragged the tag through the painty mix and dried it.  By spritzing as it is drying,  you can make the paint move about a bit... don't forget, once it is dry, it is waterproof and won't budge.  This is a cool thing too, paint that's waterproof means you can add ink... which I did, blended the same colours over the top to add depth and then Gathered Twigs around the edges.  My Frameworks were cut out of Grungepaper covered with bookpages for the actual framey bit and the innards are a combo of black card, Grungeboard and patterned papers.   I have gone all retro with my stamping... the large background is on a really old Tim set of stamps... tis Urban Tapestry CMS061 if you are interested!  That was done with Jet Black Archival...as was my little harlequin stamp.   A zap from a heat tool to set the stamping I could then assembled the Frameworks.  I added Glossy Accents to a few of the chambers to add a bit of interest.  You'll find when you scribble paint onto your craft sheet that there's loads left over after you've dipped your tag... perfect for mopping up with spare card... which then comes in really handy for colour co-ordinated stamping card.  That's what the butterflies and sentiment are stamped onto. Finishing touches are the little rusty wire bodies and the ribbon which was coloured with the same Distress Spray Stains to match the background.  Voila, easy-peasy tag!

Don't forget, you have two whole weeks to enter the challenge... and a bat at the chance of grabbing the Crew's Choice prize which is a mahooosive haul of stash donated personally by Tim & Mario... so if you are joining in, remember to comment on all the Crew's blogs and you will be in with a chance of winning that too *believe me, this is one gigantic pile of goodies*!  Thanks for looking, have an inky and inspirational day!  TTFN

Hels x

Tim's 12 Tags of 2015 - March

Oh! La! La! And... thrice!  Have you seen Tim's latest tag of 2015?  CLICK HERE to be whisked off on the back of a giant blending tool to visit his blog and see the gorgeousness he has created... I think, dare I say it, that this is my favest tag of all of the 12 tags!  The whole process of making it was soooo therapeutic... and my offering here is actually the second one I made. 

 The first is more or less exactly the same as Tim's (except it is lacking that certain je ne c'est qoi that Tim always manages to put on any of his art IYKWIM)  So, I have my "original" one and I loved making it so much, I decided to have a play and make one in the same style but using a few different things instead.  Plus, that butterfly... he is knackered poor thing!  I used him in a class last weekend so you can imagine how much ink his wings now have!

Anyways.. I won't be divulging the "how to" on this tag - tis up to thee to get thyself over to Tim's blog - I can tell you that I used his new Watercolor stamp set for the butterflies and my Distress Paint colours are: Broken China, Cracked Pistachio, Scattered Straw, Picked Raspberry and Abandoned Coral.  The gold embossing powder is my FAVE ever, my "go to" gold embossing powder, which is Ranger's Queen's Gold.  IMO, it is the perfect tone of gold... I also used it to alter the 1/2 and the ickle star... then smudged a bit of black paint over to age it up a bit.

Whilst I was in the midst of creating my tags, I got all excitable and remembered I had forgotten (*ahem*) to make my February tag... so I cracked on and made that too... I shall be back tomorrow with that one - whilst it is a smidge late it is better to be late than never right?   I shall away now, I have a project nearly finished on my desk for the next CC3 Challenge.  Have a great evening... thanks for looking... TTFN!

Hels x

Curiously Cutting...

Gooooodly Morning to all you lovely Compendium-ers!  Today sees the start of another brand new Compendium of Curiosities 3 Challenge.  To see all the details on how to join in with the challenge, CLICK HERE.  Also, if you pop across to Linda's blog, you will see all gorgeous creations that my talented teamies on the Curiosity Crew have made... they never cease to amaze me with their inspirational ideas and art!   The challenge is sponsored by the Funkie Junkie Boutique this time... so you will have a chance of winning a very generous Gift Certificate to spend there.  Tim & Mario have, as ever, very kindly donated goodies for an extra prize... which will be awarded to the "Curiosity Crew's Choice"... so you have two chances of winning fabby prizes!  If you haven't got your Compendium book just yet, you can order a signed copy directly from the man himself... HERE.  And... Linda has also done a FAQ page for you.. HERE it is... all the info you will need is listed there.   This week we are turning to Page 62 of the book and using the Dimensional Cutting Plate.  As ever with the Compendium Challenge, neither I, nor the Curiosity Crew, will be posting the technique instructions and participants must not do so either. We all want to encourage people to buy Tim's awesome book; giving away the instructions wouldn’t be fair to him. Linda will have no choice but to un-link any entries that don’t follow this rule.  

Another tag appearing for my entry to the challenge... this one has a bit of a textured background... I had this idea that I would create some extra dimension to the dimension I would be cutting using the Plate.   And as ever, my little harlequin stamp makes another appearance.  I had a bit of a result last weekend too.. I finally found the Tim stamp set (clear stamps) with the diddy little harlequin on it... yay!  I now have three different sizes in this same design... I shall be harlequinning all over the place!

My tag base had some Texture Paste added through a Layering Stencil and then I added Antique Linen, Tumbled Glass and Dusty Concord Distress Paints... and then tried out this new idea I had a few months ago that has been buzzing around my bonce and I hadn't really had a chance to try it out.  So.  Once the background of DP's is set, it looks really pretty but... it is a bit too clean looking for me.  I likes a nice antiquey shabby look.  Inking over the top with Vintage Photo DI looks cool but it just wasn't rich enough... so I decided to slap a layer of Glue & Seal over the top... this activates the DI and once dried it is completely waterproof.... hello Faux Sepia, a new technique!!!   I will do a proper tut later next week :O)

Now once I had my butterflies dimensionally cut I decided to make sure that they weren't just left a bit boring ... no butterfly likes a bare behind after all.  I inked the wings with Broken China DI and then overstamped with a script using Jet Black Archival.... and then made a little plaque of card and Tissue Tape coloured with the same DP's to sit directly on the tag behind so it shows when the wings are raised... cool huh?

Decorations are layers of Prima Flowers... a gorgeous Studio 490 butterfly stamped onto card and inked with DI's and a few bits and bobs of Idea-ology.

Anyways... that's it from me for today... don't forget, you have two whole weeks to enter the challenge... and a bat at the chance of grabbing the Crew's Choice prize which is a mahooosive haul of stash donated personally by Tim & Mario... so if you are joining in, remember to comment on all the Crew's blogs and you will be in with a chance of winning that too *believe me, this is one gigantic pile of goodies*!  Thanks for looking, have an inky and inspirational day!  TTFN

Hels x

Tim's Tags of 2015 - January

...Cor blimey and thrice!  It seems like a very long time ago that I had a chance to play along with Tim's monthly tag-fest... so I made a decision that I will make time each month to play along, after all, I loves all things taggy and I loves all things Tim!  HERE is a linky to Tim's tutorial... and yes, I am scraping in at the last minute with mine, I made it last week but forgot to blog!  Memo to self: remember to blog!!!

I won't go into details how it was made as you can check out Tim's fab step by step tutorial... and for peeps who are a bit new to all things inky and grungy, this is a perfect "toe in the water" moment... you don't have to copy exactly, you don't need the exact same stuff, you can put your own twist on it... I, however, am a notoriously bad copier when it comes to Tim's tutorials, I like to make my tag look as near as possible to the one that the Duke of Distress himself maded... that way I can pretend that he did make it... *snort*

I am in a state of excitement today!  Oh yesh... indeedily!!! We have snow!!!  For some reason, Wellingborough seems to be by-passed of snow each year, getting only a smattering... and last Winter we had not a single flake.  Last night I noticed it had started to fall a bit, off I went to bed with no anticipations as I knew that it would be "gone by morning".  Aha!  I was wrong.  We have.... 1cm!!!  WOW!!! On that bombshell, I shall bid you all a very goodly day and say... thanks for looking!   Oh and before I forget... there be a brand new Compendium of Curiosities challenge starting tomorrow so please do pop back if you can... TTFN

Hels x

Sunday Stamper - Week 339 - Anyone Who Had A Heart

Goooodly Morning Stampers and a very happy New Year Sunday to you all!  Before I waffle on, I just want to say a big thank you to everyone who joined in with my little challenge through 2014 - it is so good to see different interpretations of my themes and your artwork.  As ever with the Sunday Stamper, I chose a song title to go with the theme and this one is one of my favest songs... I love a bit of our Cilla :O))  The new theme this week is... HEARTS.  You can interpret the challenge how you like: get your Valentine creation made early, add the word heart like what I did, add heart embellies, heart stamps... the choice, it be yours!   To join in with the challenge is simples: make a little something, it can be anything you fancy.  Add in the theme AND some stamping *this is THE important bit guys, please remember your rubberstamps!*  and then hop back here, leave me a comment with a link to the place you are showing your entry and I can come see you.   If you haven't got a blog, you can join in via Facebook (just tag me name) or by emailing a small res.pic to me.  The challenge will remain open until 21:00 Saturday 10th January 2015.

I actually made my entry on Christmas Eve!  I know, I got ahead of the game!  That will be the only time this year! On Christmas Eve, Ellen and I had a little Skypey sesh and got inky in our respective time zones.  I haven't had a good play with my Studio 490 stash for yonks so I got all my stamps and stuff out and got playing.

The background was created by stamping the pattern with Antique Linen Distress Paint and drying it.  Doesn't really show up on a manila tag... until ink is applied... and then it is a fab resist technique as Distress Paint doesn't budge once it is dried.  I used Tumbled Glass, Milled Lavendar and Seedless Preserves Distress Stain Sprays, adding more water to make it washy and then standing the tag up so the inks drip down the tag.  Once this was dried, I whipped around the edge with a smidge of Seedless Preserves DI to give it a bit of depth and then finished with a smidge of Black Soot DI to give it a frame.   I stamped the large flower using Jet Black Archival Ink and used a waterbrush and piece of kitchen roll to dab off the ink where the leaves were stamped... zapped with a heat tool and then added Forest Moss DI using a waterbrush.... see how that resist just doesn't budge? Cool huh?  The Idea-ology florals were coloured with the same Distress Paints, part dried and then wiped so the still wet paint comes off and the dried paint stays on giving a faux enamel effect.  A strip of torn book page, a butterfly (she is my fave butterfly ever) and a sentiment and ta-dah, finished!   I had the best fun playing with this tag, I just let my mind wander and didn't over think it...

I shall away now.  Today we are doing the job I like the least... taking down the decorations.  It has to be today cos Grim is on nights for the rest of the week so there won't be time on the proper twelfth night but I will keep one thing out so I can put that away on twelfth night so I am doing a bit of it right.  Oh and... this post is a milestone post!!!  It be my 1900th blog post!!!   WOW!!! That is one heck of a lot of waffling... and art!  Thanks for looking... have a FAB day!  TTFN

Hels x

Curiously Frayed...

Gooooodly Morning to all you lovely Compendium-ers!  Today sees the start of another brand new Compendium of Curiosities 3 Challenge.  To see all the details on how to join in with the challenge, CLICK HERE.  Also, if you pop across to Linda's blog, you will see all gorgeous creations that my talented teamies on the Curiosity Crew have made... they never cease to amaze me with their inspirational ideas and art!   The challenge is sponsored by the Inspiration Imporium this time... so you will have a chance of winning a very generous Gift Certificate to spend there.  Tim & Mario have, as ever, very kindly donated goodies for an extra prize... which will be awarded to the "Curiosity Crew's Choice"... so you have two chances of winning fabby prizes!  If you haven't got your Compendium book just yet, you can order a signed copy directly from the man himself... HERE.  And... Linda has also done a FAQ page for you.. HERE it is... all the info you will need is listed there.   This week we are turning to Page 66 of the book and doing the Frayed Fabric technique using Tim's gorgeous Eclectic Elements fabric.  As ever with the Compendium Challenge, neither I, nor the Curiosity Crew, will be posting the technique instructions and participants must not do so either. We all want to encourage people to buy Tim's awesome book; giving away the instructions wouldn’t be fair to him. Linda will have no choice but to un-link any entries that don’t follow this rule.  

Before I waffle on I shall say a very Happy New Year to you all and wish you all the very best for 2015... let's hope it brings all our dreams come true! 

My entry for this weeks' challenge is another tag to add to the collection.  Now, for those who have read my blog for a while, you may have got the gist that I am not a sewist... nope, I struggle to thread the machine, let alone get a stitch out of it.  Grim bought me a little diddy machine a few years ago and that did ok until it ran out of thread and yep, I struggled to get more thread into it.  I am that thick... really!   I knew that I was going to have to do something about this not being a sewist issue... so I hatched a cunning plan.  A plan so cunning that Jock McCunning from Sneakyville would be amazed by it.   What did I do?  I collected together all the ingredients needed for my tag and popped next door to see my lovely neighbour Carol, who is an expert sewist and asked her to... um... help do it for me.  *insert gasps of shock*  I know, I kind of cheated... ok, I really cheated but in my defence, I happen to like Carol muchly and should she have allowed me loose on her beautiful sewing machine, I would have broken it... so better safe than sorry and all that.... ahem.... and I did do all the decorating bits meself...

Anyways, the decorations:  I popped some of the Eclectic Elements fabric (apparently I had a fat quarter, whatever that may be... it was indeedily gorgeous but not that fat...) onto a piece of black Clearly For Art using Glue & Seal and once this had dried, I used Tim's Mini Tattered Florals Movers & Shapers die to cut out a few spikey flowers, the Heart M&S die to cut the... um... heart and a few leaves from the Mini Tattered Leaves die.   In order to see the diecuts, I firstly dulled the print of the fabric on the heart using a smidge of Antique Linen Distress Paint, secondly spritzed the flowers with Wild Honey and Broken China Distress Spray Stains and thirdly, inked the leaves with Forest Moss Distress Ink.  Hey, the fabric takes Distress sooo well! Result!  I used my Scratchy Tool to fray the edges of the shapes to make them a bit shabby and then heated the CFA from behind to shape them.

Last year I treated myself to something I have been longing to own for a very long time... an old Underwood typewriter!  I had been a-mooching around eBay one Sunday evening and spotted a portable Underwood on a listing that was just about to end and it was dirt cheap... so I snuck in and popped a bid in at 4 seconds to go.. and won it!  Hurrah!  Now I have got the Room of Stash nice and tidy, I have finally got room for it to be used...  high time I got typing!  One of my all time fave songs is P.S. I Love You by The Beatles and this song has been floating around my head for a few days... so it seemed right to type the words and pop them onto my tag.   Oh and do you see the little harlequin stamp made an appearance too?  Well, it has to be used for continuity... and cos I loves it muchly of course.

Don't forget, you have two whole weeks to enter the challenge... and a bat at the chance of grabbing the Crew's Choice prize which is a mahooosive haul of stash donated personally by Tim & Mario... so if you are joining in, remember to comment on all the Crew's blogs and you will be in with a chance of winning that too *believe me, this is one gigantic pile of goodies*!  Wishing you all a very crafty 2015.. may your fingers be forever inky :O))   Thanks for looking, have an inspirational day!  TTFN

Hels x

Curiously Embossed...

Gooooodly Morning to all you lovely Compendium-ers!  Today sees the start of a brand new Compendium of Curiosities 3 Challenge.  To see all the details on how to join in with the challenge, CLICK HERE.  Also, if you pop across to Linda's blog, you will see all gorgeous creations that my talented teamies on the Curiosity Crew have made... well worth taking a cuppa and a packet of Digestives :O)    The challenge is sponsored by the Funkie Junkie Boutique this time... so you will have a chance of winning a very generous Gift Certificate to spend there.  As ever, Tim & Mario have very kindly donated goodies for an extra prize... which will be awarded to the "Curiosity Crew's Choice"... so you have two chances of winning fabby prizes!  If you haven't got your Compendium book just yet, you can order a signed copy directly from the man himself... HERE.  And... Linda has also done a FAQ page for you.. HERE it is... all the info you will need is listed there.   This week we are turning to Page 50 of the book and doing the Layering Stencils - Embossing technique.  As ever with the Compendium Challenge, neither I, nor the Curiosity Crew, will be posting the technique instructions and participants must not do so either. We all want to encourage people to buy Tim's awesome book; giving away the instructions wouldn’t be fair to him. Linda will have no choice but to un-link any entries that don’t follow this rule.   

I have another tag to show you for my entry this week!  Yes, I have quite a collection growing now and I need to find a mahoosive bookring to store them all on - I have used up all available space on the 3" one so I thinks I needs a 5" ring... mmm, where to get one from!   Here's a piccie of my tag before I did the stamping and embellishmentizing:

I used Tim's Holiday Knit stencil for the technique and then added smidges from the Holly Stencil.  The ink I used for the main technique is Tumbled Glass DI and the Holly is a mix of Iced Spruce and Forest Moss DI.  Blending around the edges was Antique Linen, Frayed Burlap (where would I be without Frayed Burlap huh?) and Gathered Twigs.  I decided to scruff the edges with a paper distresser to add a more shabby look to the tag.  Of course, I had to add my little harlequin stamp.. this was done with Jet Black Archival Ink.

The rose (cut from the Tattered Florals die) was made using cream card, inked with Broken China and Frayed Burlap, overstamped with Pumice Stone and then once assembled, I dipped it into a Melt Pot full of beeswax.. I love the effect dipping into wax gives the rose and it also makes it a lot more sturdy too.  The leaves are Tim's Holiday Greens cut from Distress Core-dinations and then I popped a few bits of Idea-ology onto the tag to finish.  Ooh, I meant to say... the little jingle bell Idea-ology charm was painted with Distress Paints to jazz it up a bit.

That's all for now - don't forget, you have two whole weeks to enter the challenge... and a bat at the chance of grabbing the Crew's Choice prize which is a mahooosive haul of stash donated personally by Tim & Mario... so if you are joining in, remember to comment on all the Crew's blogs and you will be in with a chance of winning that too *believe me, this is one gigantic pile of goodies*!   I will just say a big thank you to every one of you who has taken part in the challenge so far, it has been great to visit your blogs and see your wonderful interpretations of the challenge themes!  Thanks for looking, have an inky inspirational day!  TTFN

Hels x