Sunday Stamper - Week 340 - Anything Goes

Goooodly Afternoon Stampers and a very happy Sunday to you all!  Thanks for your lovely hearty entries to last weeks challenge, I need to finish my visits later today... been busy being lazy - you know how it goes right?  The new theme this week is... ANYTHING GOES.  You can interpret the challenge how you like: literally this week, you can do anything... seriously, anything at all! Be it a card, a tag, an altered creation... 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 17th January 2015.

My entry this week is a tag I made a while ago that I hadn't blogged... the papers are the gorgeous Rustic Harmony from Kaisercraft as is the stamped sentiment.  I added a couple of Wendy's butterflies - edging everything with the usual Distress Ink... and then got cracking on the floral embellishment.

I used Sue Wilson's Poinsettia dies - the fancy and the solid ones, showing that you don't have to actually make a poinsettia with the dies, they are so versatile they can make a nice big blousy flower... and you all know how much I loves me blousy flowers :O)  I added a few more of the fancy cut flowers, cut up and coloured with Forest Moss DI to make a leafy bundle behind the flower, popped a few pearly swirly bits behind the flower and voila, finished... and nice quick and simple tag :O)

I hope you haven't been blown away this week... we have been lucky here Chez Sheridan, the winds haven't been too bad so I haven't had to sit and stare at the Spinney, willing the trees to stay upright... tis a smidge chilly here today though, so my plan is so hunker down in the Room of Stash and get some ink on these far too clean fingers of mine!  Thanks for looking, whatever you are doing, have a fab day!  TTFN

Hels x

Sunday Stamper - Week 336 - Wings of a Dove

Goooodly Morning ...ahem... I mean Goodly EVENING (!) Stampers and big massive apologies for the late posting of this weeks challenge.  I have no excuse except this... I am a woman of certain years and my memory is like a sieve!  I completely forgot to make something for this weeks challenge!  I know!  How rude!  Anyways.... onwards!  Thank you all for your great Christmassy entries into last weeks challenge.  The theme this week is... WINGS.  You can interpret the challenge how you like: be it wings of a birdy, a butterfly, a bug or even an angel... 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 13th December 2014.

Now, as I mentioned, Memory Like a Big Old Fat Swiss Cheese woman here forgot to make something... I have a few pics on me phone of stuff I have made recently but... I had a couple of lovely pics of some cools stuff I made *and gave away* a few weeks ago... and they were on the computer.  Which I decided to "clean" and um... deleted them. Permanently!  Ooops!    So, today I have been teaching a Melt Pot class over at Crafty Bunch in Telford and it was only as I was driving over there this morning that I remembered that I had forgotten.  Anyways... my entry this week is what we maded today!  Many thanks to Sue for hosting the class, (and having me back!) to all the lovely ladies who came along and made it such fun.... I shall forever have the image of a giraffe in a fridge :O)) and to Pauline for the scrumdiddlyumptious mincey pies... oh my, they were THE best... EVER!

This is a variation of my Waxing Lyrical sample that I did a few weeks ago, this one is a lot bigger and for some reason, the photo's are reaaaallly pink... I have tried to do the old thing with them in PhotoDodah but they still look pinker than a piglets nose.  It isn't this pink, it is more of a browny shady pinky colour.  The papers are Kaisercraft Key To My Heart... Tim's Tattered Floral for the rose and a Tim sentiment and Darkroom Door butterflies.

I shall away now... we are pigging out on curry tonight (strangely, this is practically the only food that isn't making me proper poorly sick!) and have the evening planned... XFactor (why, in the name of all things holy, do I watch that...every year!!!?) and the final of I'm A Celeb... upon which note I shall say *rather loudly* GO FOGGY!    Thanks for looking, have a great... um... evening!  TTFN

Hels x

The Long Arm of the Law...

...cor blimey!  I can't believe how quickly this past few weeks has whizzed past!  Tis time for my Jones DT offering.  Now a few weeks ago I was doing a demo day at Inspirations in Preston and there I was, sitting playing working and along came a policeman!  I know!  In a craft shop! *and yes, I somehow managed to look guilty even though I was, of course, totally innocent*  He had ventured into the shop to see if he could find something to mount a whistle in.  He had asked one of the gals who works in the shop and she brought him over to me (poor, unsuspecting chap) and of course, who am I to turn down the request of a policeman?

The whistle belonged to his sergeant who was retiring and he wanted to present it to him in a special box as a keepsake.  That was as far as he had got with his idea.  He was holding a little wooden box and looked a bit lost so I offered to help him out.  I painted the outside of the box for him, sanded it and then added some Distress Ink... at that point he had got a bit bored of watching paint dry and off he went to buy said box and go and fix the whistle into it.  He left me the lid of the box as payment for my time... yes, last of the big spenders lol   Of course, I needed to use the lid immediately so I filled it up with delish Rustic Harmony papers from Kaisercraft - painting the wood black, sanding it and then inking with Gathered Twigs to add a bit of vintageness to the project and then popping a few stamped butterflies into the box... voila, a quicky vintagey project finished.

 
I shall away now - I have a project on the go I need to attend to, exciting!!!   Thanks for looking... TTFN

Hels x

Mix & Match... Part Quatre

... I promise I won't do the whole french counting thing again... well, for a wee while at least!   Here I am again with my last piece for Jones DT using Kaisercraft Mix & Match papers.  This time I have made a hanging... and of course, I couldn't allow paper useage without the addition of one of my Tattered Roses...

The base is mountboard that I have layered up with some of the papers from the collection - I love kraft and black together, it is a really classy look (IMO)  Please excuse the wonky photo, I tried and better tried to straighten it up but it still looks a bit wonky!  And I can't re-take the photo as the artwork has already been posted off to Jones... memo to self, always take two photo's just in case like!  Anyways, layered up papers and then I cut out some of the doily's from the doily paper sheet... inked them with Antique Linen and then edged with Vintage Photo and applied the to the top layer... I curled up the edges of the doily's to give the piece a little more dimension.  The sentiment was cut from the sentiment sheet... but it was too big for the hanging so I cut it up into individual words and then layered them onto black card, a cool tip for when you have a sentiment but it won't fit... chop it up!    The rose was cut using Tim's Tattered Florals and then inked with Barn Door to add a smidge of colour and formed into a rose... I added a couple of Tattered Leaves too and then popped some of the delish buttons made by Jones of Nottingham... I love these!!!   A bit of rusty wire for the hanging and voila, done!

That's all from me for today... I will be back again tomorrow with a little sample I have made for my demo day at Coleman's Rushden (on Saturday)... am rather chuffed with the way it turned out... something slightly different for me too ;O))   Thanks for looking... TTFN

Hels x

Mix & Match... Part...erm... Trois

I am back again with another sample made from the Kaisercraft Mix & Match paper collection for my Jones DT... and being as last time I went all french, I figured I would try and continue that theme.... and had to rush to ask Mr Google if I had spelt trois correctly... I had!  Phew!  

Anyways... this time is a tag using a Graphic 45 kraft tag as a base.  I covered the tag with the doily papers and coloured right over the top with Antique Linen DI as I prefer kraft and cream to white which is what the doily is printed in... and then edged the tag with Vintage Photo to age it up a bit.   The butterflies are cut from one of the sheets of paper... and then inked with Barn Door and Vintage Photo DI's to add some colour.  I used some flat back pearls to make the bodies.  The sentiment is also from one of the papers, again coloured with Antique Linen to age it a bit.  I added a strip of stripy paper to break up the background, popped the sentiment onto and and then added some more pearls - well, you can never have enough pearls right?

I will be back later in the week with Part Quatre... a quicky post from me today as I am up to my eyeballs in sample making for my demo day at Coleman's Warehouse in Rushden on Saturday... it is only 10 mins from home, am excited to be so close to home for a change!  I will be demo-ing Graphic 45 - new paper collections... so if you can make it, I hope to meet you!   Thanks for looking... TTFN

Hels x

Mix & Match... Part Deux

Ooooh get me, going all French!  Did I ever tell you how I exceeded all expectations from Miss Mathers, my French teacher? Oh yesh, in my *ahem* O Level (ok, yes, I am that old lol) I was graded a U.  At the time I was ever so proud that I had failed so miserably that they couldn't even give the failure a proper grade!  Looking back on it, I was going through a rebel phase, my devil may care attitude was "when am I ever going to need French huh?"  And I concentrated on my English O Levels (which, I am rather chuffed to say, I did exceedingly well with an B+ and a B in Lit and Language respectively!)    Not that you would ever guess that I reached those high accolades if you are a regular reader of this waffle filled blog!   Anyways... enough wafflings!  Today I am back with the card I made for my Jones of Nottingham DT using the Kaisercraft Mix & Match paper collection.

Get this... no stamping or inking on this one!! I resisted the temptation so much I had to sit on my paws to stop me grabbing an ink blending tool!  I wanted to see if I could do a little "clean" work... and, it appears, I can!  Although I do think a smidge of something around the edges would be nice ;O))  Now, I have never been one for making cards... give me a tag, a canvas, a piece of old cardboard and I am happy... give me a card and I struggle to get the layout right, my brain goes blank and I make something super simple... which is exactly what this card is but... it is no bad thing to do "simple" every so often right?

I decided to keep this card "colour free" and stick with the kraft, black and white theme of the papers (there be reds in there too but that was yesterday's post)  The sentiment is actually snipped from one of the papers - it is chock full of lovely sentiments!  The butterfly is another snip from a sheet of the paper, again, I was tempted to add some colour to him but I was good!  I made a little bow using seam binding and then popped the butterfly atop of it... and used a few Martha Steward punches to add some prettiness to the design.  If you look closely, you will see the under the butterfly has strips of butterflies on it... this is one of the "info strips" along the bottom of the papers... I know I said it yesterday but... Kaiser are cool, they do the info on one side of the paper and on the other side is a strip of decoration... this little butterfly strip worked perfectly.

We have had much excitement in the garden today!  Lord Alfonse is single-pawdley going through the Spinney removing all traces of mouses and voles - at least two or three a week and a few weeks ago, two in a morning!  He keeps bringing these furry critters home and I keep grabbing him and allowing them to run off *unless I am too late and they, erm... are extinct!*.  Anyways, this morning a huge cacophony of noise arrives along with Mummy's Little Predator.  What be that noise!!!  A loud squeaking and Alf looking ever so slightly alarmed.  Upon investigation, I can see it is a shrew.  A hooooge shrew!  A massive shrew!!! Nay and thrice a humungus Shrew!  Said Biggest Shrew in England had been deposited on the lawn and was standing up (I kid you not, it was standing up on hind legs) and squeaking loudly at Alf who was looking ever so slightly frightened!  I grabbed Alfonse and the Monster Shrew of the Spinney turned and ran at my feet!!!  Now, I ain't no chicken, in fact there be only one thing that will have me lifting my skirts and running for the hills and that be earwigs (shudder), but this Beast of Northamptonshire had a vicious look in its eye so I took very long and fast steps back into the house with a struggling Alf under my arm.   Calm is now restored, Alf has had his lunchingtons and a few treats so he knows he is a good boy and I have repaired to the (newly tidy) Room of Stash...  after all that kerfuffle, I needs a bit of time with my inks to calm me nerves!   I shall away now... time for an inky afternoon *peeks out of the window to see if the Behemoth of Wellingborough has disappeared*    Thanks for looking, TTFN!

Hels x

Mix & Match... Part 1

Goodly morning!  Cor blimey and thrice, where has this week gone huh?  One minute it is Sunday and the next we are waking up to Thursday!  Yikes!   Anyways, I have been busying myself in the Room of Stash playing with my DT pack from Jones of Nottingham.  I was sent the new Kaisercraft Mix & Match papers which are a mixture of kraft papers with red, white and black patterns... along with some cool sentiments and two sheets that are just perfick for cutting out - namely butterflies and hearts.  I have made a card (I know! a card!) and a tag (yep, you know how I loves my tags!)  Today I am showing you the tag... I will pop the card on tomorrow :O)

I used a couple of the papers that have white lacy doily images on them, covered a Size 8 tag and then added a punched strip of black cardstock to cover the join.  Now the cool thing with Kaiser papers is that along the bottom "info" strip the reverse side usually has a little patterned strip - seeing this red and white stripe on one of the strips was perfect to add to the black card punched strip, I cut it, edged with Distress Ink and then popped it over the top. 

I mentioned about the hearts... well, these are so pretty, a lacy design and the actual heart looks like it has three layers... well, it really does now as I cut three out and layered them up, puffing them with a paper stump and adding Pinflair behind to make them stay in shape.   The words are taken from another of the papers... says it all doesn't it?  I added a few paper flowers (also Kaisercraft) to the bottom of the tag and a pearly self adhesive strip to jazz up the bottom of the tag a bit but... the heart, it looked ok but it needed something.  I tried out a pearl, nope that didn't look right so I spotted my Kaiser butterfly stamps and decided to stamp a small one, cut it out, colour with Barn Door DI and pop him on... perfect!  A bit of red and cream grosgrain to make the bow at the top and voila, finished. 

That's all from me for today... I have a "job" to do... and if I sit here I will end up spending all morning doing aversion activities that will stop me from doing the really important thing I needs to do... tidy the Room of Stash!  I know! I know!  I am of slatternly persuasion and the old Room has got a wee bit out of hand again... simply a case of not putting stuff away after using it... and I have had a bit of a declutter and things aren't in their proper places... I may be some time... and I may even *whispers* de-cobweb the place too!    On that delightful note, I shall bid you all a very goodly day.... Thanks for looking!  TTFN

Hels x

Bang Bang BeYOUtiful!

...blimey, two posts in two days!  I am on a roll!  My DT pack for Jones of Nottingham arrived whilst I was on holibobs and I have been half way through making this for the past 5 weeks... thankfully, now Mr Mojo has returned, I have been able to finish it off properly.   My DT pack was the gorgeous BeYOUtiful collection from Kaisercraft along with a packet of the Collectable in the same collection.

I made an exploding box - I sneaked a little bit of Storyteller collection in too as these papers go together so perfectly and I loves them both - wouldn't do to have favourites right?

There are three layers and a lid to the construction of the box and lots of panels of more papers which have been inked with Gathered Twigs (I love adding smidges of brown around the edges of stuff... especially as this colours up any cut edges of the papers)

The Collectables are fabulous you know.  Chock full of diecut printed shapes and sentiments and perfect to be chopped about and added onto projects.  On the side of the box I used two diecut printed flowery shapes and cut them up the middle and stuck them to the panels next to each other so when the box is closed, they kind of line up together.

Aren't the ickle birdies just toooo cute!!!  These have been cut a little closer and edged with Gathered Twigs and popped onto the box and lid with 3d foam.

The flowery top was made using Tim's Floral Garland die, layered up flowers and jazzed up with a flat back pearl.  The centre has three mini roses and a few bits of ivy (I sneaked a smidge of Heirloom collection in here too...teeheee)

I am making this a short n sweet post today as I have a date with Mr Mojo again!  Oh yesh, he is currently doing a fandango in the Room of Stash and is brandishing an inkpad so I am thinking he wants to get creative again!  Yeeehaw!!  Thanks for looking... have a great day!

TTFN

Hels x

Easily Distracted...

...cor blimey and thrice alive!!!  It has been one of those weeks... you know, when you start the week full of goodly intentions to "do stuff" and end spending most of it doing "something else instead".  Well, my "something else" has been distracting me good and proper all week!  Oh yesh, the Greenhouse-That-Grim-Built has kept me occupied all week so all promises of sharing some of the stuff from the Jones' Retailer Day last Sunday has kind of been overlooked.  I meant to type up a blog post the other day but this week has fair whizzed past though.  You see, Grim has been on night shift all week and being as I am of a clumsy persuasion, I find it really hard to be as quiet as a mouse whilst he is in the Land of Nod during the day.  And why, when you are trying to be mouse-like, does everything end up being realllly noisy??  Anyways, taking the opportunity of the good weather and the fact that I have several hundred weight of cucumber, tomato, gourd and sunflower plants to pot on, I have been hiding out in the Greehouse-That-Grim-Built all week!

When I say several hundred weight, I am not joking!  I have never grown things from seed properly before - well, apart from a seed tray on a window sill which isn't the same thing - so this year, armed with packets of seeds and a new greenhouse, I got all down and dirty and planted all the seeds in all the packets... plus a load of seeds I had collected from Calendula and Morning Glory plants last year.  Little did I realise how easy cucumbers, gourds and tomatoes are to germinate.  At one count, I had over 40 cucumbers, 33 tomatoes and 43 gourds (not sure how that happened as I only sowed 37 gourd seeds!)  And of course, once these little beauties start to grow, they need potting on (get me, proper terminology and everything!)  Not to mention the Phlox, Sweet William, sunflowers (lots of sunflowers) and Sweet Peas.  The Sweet Peas kind of caught me out too... mainly because I didn't read the packet... after a month, not a single smidge of green was showing in the tray of Sweet Peas, so I got a bit grumpy, went and bought a different flavour of seed and sowed those too.  Impatience is not a virtue... Two months later I have 30 odd plants as they all decided to show their faces (not that I am complaining) so the one big tub of Sweets Peas in now three big tubs!

Anyways, the point of this waffle is my excuse for being a baaad blogger!  It would be just plain rude of me to ignore all those little plants - by the way, I have done a "clinical trial"  I decided that this "talking to plants" thing might be worth a punt.  So, I have little chats with them as they are growing... except for one pot of chilli seeds that I decided to ignore.  Well, sure enough, all the seeds germinated except for the single pot of chilli's.   There it sat, a pot of compost looking a bit forlorn... until a week ago when I said "if you don't start to show your faces soon, you are for the compost bin"  Sure enough, a couple of days later little green shoots have appeared!  So, it is true!  Chat to your plants and they will grow!  Simples!  Oh and I almost forgot... we have already had our first harvest too!  Oh yesh, I grew some radishes, just to see how easy they were... and nom nom nom!  They have grown perfectly and already been scoffed!  I have a massive tub of different flavour radish on the go now and another I am planting at the start of next week so that should see us through to July at least.  I am loving this gardening lark!  I hasten to add that I have found homes for a lot of the cucumbers/toms/gourd plants... there is only so much salad I am prepared to eat lol

This post is peppered with pics of the two tags I taught on the Jones Retailer day last Sunday - the blue tag, which is a Graphic 45 tag base, is from the morning class and is using the gorgeous new Kaisercraft Storyteller range of papers and two fabby stamp/stencil sets from Hampton Art... and the red tag is the afternoon class, that one is using the Be-YOU-tiful collection from Kaisercraft.

The card is using the Be-YOU-tiful collection too; the butterfly is a Kaisercraft stamp, the sentiment is also from Kaisercraft and the flowers... yep, Kaisercraft - these are Fire Fly colour - aren't they lushness!!!   I shall away now, I have bent your ear long enough with my tales from the greenhouse!  Have a great day... don't forget to check back tomorrow for the brand new CC3 challenge too.   Thanks for looking... TTFN

Hels x

Sunday Stamper - Week 308 - Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue

Goooodly Morning Stampers and a very happy Sunday to you all!  Many thanks for all your beautiful pink entries to last weeks challenge.   This week the theme is a nice simple colour one.... Use Brown & Blue.    To join in with the challenge is simples: make a little something, it can be anything you fancy.   Include the theme and add in some stamping and then pop back here to leave me a comment with a link to the place you are showing your entry and I can come visiting.  If you haven't got a blog/photo-hosty-thingy, you can also join in via Facebook (just tag my name) or by sending me a small res. pic via email.  The challenge will remain open until 21:00 Saturday 26th May 2014.
 

 
 My entry this week is actually a DT piece I made for Jones of Nottingham.  Today I am teaching at their retailer event - how exciting!!! Showing the shop owners all the gorgeous goodies available from Jones - I will be focussing on Kaisercraft and I will show you the project they will be making today a little bit later in the week.  Anyways, this shadow box is from Candy Box Crafts - it is really easy to put together, I used Cosmic Glue to stick the base together and then gave it a slap of black paint.  I cut a piece of the gorgeous Marion Smith Nirvana papers to fit inside the shadow box and then I covered the frame with more papers that matched perfectly. 

The insert paper has been inked with Tumbled Glass and Vintage Photo DI and then I did a bit of stamping with Kaisercraft stamps - the diamonds and bubble wrap and done with the same DI's and the dressform and butterflies with Watering Can Archival.  The sentiment is stamped in Jet Black Archival and popped onto some black card to make it pop.  I also stamped some butterflies and cut them out, adding them to the insert with a smidge of glue and a jewel for the body (from the delightful little Junque and Jewels embellies from Marion Smith)   As I seemed to be on a sewing theme, I covered a bit of Grungeboard with Claudine's  stickyback canvas and die cut the dressform (Tim's Sewing Room Alteration die) colouring lightly with Frayed Burlap DI and then scruffing the edges of the canvas and going around the edges with Walnut Stain DI.

And now for the embellies!  I had some cotton reels kicking about so I inked with Walnut Stain to age them and added string around and popped some little pins into them... the flowers are Kaisercraft blooms (more gorgeousness) and the rest of the embellies are from Marion Smith Junque & Jewels sets... check out that ickle push bike!  Nowt to do with sewing but it is so cute, I couldn't resist!

That is all from me for today... again, I am scheduling this post as it is really Friday night and I am just getting ready for my bed... up early in the morning (that is now yesterday) to travel to Hessle for my class at Craftique... and by now it is Sunday so I will be heading off to Nottingham.. I don't half get about!!!   Hope you have a great day, enjoy the sunshine!  TTFN

Hels x

Sunday Stamper - Week 298 - A Stitch in Time

Gooodly Morning Stampers and a very happy Sunday to you all!  Thanks for so many fabby entries to last weeks challenge, it is a pleasure to hop around to all your blogs to see your grand creations.  This week the theme is... STITCHES/SEWING.  The theme invites you to add any kind of stitching into your creation, be it faux with stamping or doodling... or actual real stitching either by hand or machine!  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 and then pop back here to leave me a comment along with a linky to the place you are showing your entry.  If you haven't got a blog, you can join in via Facebook - simply tag my name, or by emailing me a small res. photo of you creation.  The challenge will remain open until 21:00 Saturday 15th March 2014.

 This week I have been stealing time from the middle of the night!  Oh ho yesh, I have sussed out that time during the night is not only "free" it also appears to be when my Mojo is in full steam and I am at my most creative.  Mind you, it isn't hard to be creative when you have the right stashly goodies.  Of late, I have sadly neglected my Studio 490 stash, mainly because I haven't had time to play with it all.  So, during my nighttime playtimes, I have been dusting off the 490 stash and getting thoroughly covered in ink and paint.  This creation is a hanging piece I made, the base is chipboard that I covered with some new Kaisercraft Papers (Timeless collection, nom!) and then I got crackling... *see what I dids there? teehee*   Recently, the marvel that is Wendy Vecchi added a brand new embossing texture paste to her already great range. *click her name to be transported to her blog for amazing inspirations*  And if you saw last Sunday's Sunday Stamper you will have already seen this fabulous Crackled Texture Paste.   This time, instead of just slapping it onto the base "raw", I added a few drops of Geranium Archival Re-Inker to colour it.  Ohhhhlaaaalaaaa!  Check out those crackles!  I started by popping the Heart Stencil For Art onto the base, smidging on a thin layer of Black Embossing Paste and once dried (super fast as it was a thin layer) I replaced the Heart over the top and spread a nice thick layer of Crackled Paste over the top.  It was nice and dry and ready to use about an hour later... and whilst I loved the bright red, it was just a smidge too bright for how I wanted the piece to look.  To fix this, I grabbed some Cut & Dry Foam and blended Geranium and Watering Can Archival Inks over the top... voila, a grungier effect.

Now for the decorations.  The base looked fine but... a bit bare.  So after rummaging through my 490 stamps, I found the stitched scallop and stamped that around the edge of the base, then used Antique Linen and Gathered Twigs DI's to add a vintage look.  I stamped a few flourishes in Watering Can at the top of the heart (look closely, they are there, hiding under the flowers lol)  And then... ART PARTS!!!  Now, I love Art Parts more than most other things in my stash! They are sturdy, easily altered and they just add that perfect amount of dimension to any creation.  So, the leaves were painted with Forest Moss and Crushed Olive Distress Paints and then overstamped with a cool background using Fern Green Archival ink.  The Art Part word started out saying "wishes" but I didn't want the "es" so I chopped them off, slapped a layer of Rock Candy Cracklepaint onto the word and then once crackled, applied Black Soot DP over the top... subtle crackle on top of mega crackle. 
  

And now for the decorating bit!  It is no secret that I loves a nice flower bundle... in fact, the majority of the things I make have flowers on them.. and the Studio 490 stamps are just perfect for making said flower bundles.  I stamped all the flowers onto cream cardstock, cut them all out and then overstamped them with Geranium Archival and lots of different background stamps - again all Studio 490.  They were then inked with Antique Linen, Fired Brick and Gathered Twigs DI's.  I used the mini dotty butterfly and Jet Black Archival to stamp out onto Clearly For Art.  Now, Clearly For Art is one of the bestest things you can have in your crafty stash - it is a heatable modelling film that can be left clear, covered with papers, fabric, inks, die cut, stamped etc and once it is heated and moulded, it keeps its shape.  And if you hate your moulding? You can reheat it and it goes back to flat again!  Genius indeedily!  The addage of little pearls to the flowers and butterflies was my finishing touch, I didn't want to add any more embellies as I liked the look as it is.. and I know how mental I can go with the old embellies!

 I have had a great time this past week playing late at night... and this coming week I actually have a weekend off so... that means more time to play during the days too!  As ever, have a wonderful day... I hope you like the theme and get a chance to play along.  Thanks for looking... TTFN

Hels x

Distress With Extra's...

...cor blimey, Wednesday already!  I don't know where this week has whizzed off to, I have just had two days off and I spent most of the time asleep! I think the Manflu from last week has wiped me out!  No more Moomin Mamma, thankfully, the old schnozzle has gone back to the normal size... phew!  Anyways, I spent a wonderful weekend in Telford at Crafty Bunch, teaching lots of lovely ladies all about Distress Inks and techniques you can use them for... and at the same time, they made a lovely piece of bespoke wall art using a Kaisercraft MDF frame.  Here are some pics of the creation I made for the sample:

I won't go into detail how we made the creations as it wouldn't be fair to the ladies who came to play... I can tell you the colours I used are Antique Linen, Dusty Concord, Tumbled Glass and Faded Jeans.  And yes, purple again!

Today I am mostly unpacking all the boxes from the weekend - told you I had been lazy! - and then I have this creation popping around my head that I want to make before I forget what I am wanting to make (yes, that happens regularly.. .I even have a little book to sketch things into and forget to use that too!)  

Hope you all having a goodly week.... thanks for looking, TTFN

Hels x

Take A Note...

...or even a Notelet Box!  New for my Jones DT this month is a great MDF blank Notelet Box by Candy Box Crafts.  Now, as you all know, I am stooopid when it comes to assembledge... and therefore I was a bit perturbed when I saw the Notelet Box in kit form... lots of bits of wood... but actually, it fits together really easily, which is a good thing right?  

In order to ensure I didn't waste my fabby Kaisercraft 75 Cents papers, I made a pencil mark on the side of the woody bits that I needed to cover... and then covered the rest of the bits with Kaisercraft Black paint, applied with Cut & Dry foam so it was a nice smooth finish.  Once that had dried I used good old Cosmic Glue and stuck the papers to the woody bits... using a craft knife to make the fit perfect and then sanding the edges to reveal the white core of the paper and make the box look a little older than it is.  I also got my Texture Hammer out and gave it a bashing so it has gnarly bits too... and I also used me Tim scissors to snip the edges of the front of the lid and then sanded these back too.  My aim was to make the box look like it has been around a few decades.  Check out the stamping... that is an ancient date stamp I picked up on eBay and I used the bottom of a Diet Coke can to add the circles...well, it is more authentic!

Also from Kaisercraft are the fabby Attic Stickers... I used the ruler, cutting it to fit the lid, blending with Distress Ink (good old Walnut Stain) and then scruffing it up with the edge of my Tim scissors, tearing bits out and then sticking the sticker onto the lid using a smidge of Cosmic Glue for extra adhesions.  Next came the "fixing it all together" moment... a moment I always seem to hold my breath for because no matter how many times I check I have done the measurements right and the colouring and paper covering, I always seem to drop a doo-doo.  Well, I did this time too... not because of the design of the box, oh no, that was a doddle.. no because I am, as I mentioned earlier, completely stooopid!  Right at the very front, I didn't factor in the little tabs that fix it all together, thankfully cos of the design of the papers it doesn't stick out like a sore thumb... unlike my real thumb which was sticking out as I had inadvertantly stabbed it with my Tim scissors!  I need those chainmail gloves that butchers wear... 

Now for the decorations.  As you may have also noticed, I have a bit of a penchant for the embellishing bit of any project.  Now this box would have been lovely left as it was... bit oh ho, why not slather a pile of stuff onto it and jazz it up?  So, out came my mahoosive Tattered Florals and regular size Tattered Florals dies along with my Tattered Leaves die and I cut some flowers, making them into roses (sanding the edges of the petals before assembledge to make them shabbier looking) and addin Forest Moss DI to the leaves to make them...erm.. greener!   Of course, being as Jones are button makers (what, you mean you ain't checked out their website???  GO NOW!!! No, hang on a mo, finish this and then go *rofl*)  Yes, Jones have the most amazing array of buttons and it just so happens that they have some new steampunky geary coggy ones... so it was only natural that I bung them into the floral embellishment pile... along with a few bits of Idea-ology and... check out the ickle lightbulb... that is a proper, real, actual lightbulb from my Dad's car!  Don't worry, I didn't just randomly nick his tail light, he changed it cos it had "gone" and I asked if I could have it... he looked at me as if I am bonkers (he doesn't realise just how mad his only child is I fear) so on that went too! 

I took a few days off over the weekend... the busyness of the past few weeks had caught up with me and after the 7 hour drive home from Cornwall on Friday, I felt I needed a few days away from everything... so I spent Saturday asleep - well, for about 18 hours of it!!! And then Sunday I went to Costco with Rich & Mary.... then came home and Skyped Ellen for 4 hours (we hadn't Skyped for yonks so it was a mega catch up!) and then yesterday I spent the whole day happily ensconsed on the Sofa of Slouchiness, watching daytime tv and generally being mouselike as Grim is on nights this week so I needs to be uber quiet... not normal behaviour for me I can tell you (he will too!)   Today I am back to work, sample making for classes I have coming up and catching up on DT stuff... so that means that last night (yes, actually just after I finish typing this as I am scheduling it) I spent several hours unpacking work boxes, storing stash and tidying the Room of Stash.  And I know, I said a week ago I had plans to attack the Room of Stash... and no, I didn't!!   With all this in mind, I shall cast aside my slatternly behaviour get a wiggle on a get tidying!  Thanks for looking.. have a great day!  TTFN

Hels x

True Lurves...

...awww, friends of ours got engaged over Christmas... awwww, I loves a wedding I do, being a bit of an old romantic.  So, I made them a card.  Now, regular readers of my daily wafflings will be well aware that cardmaking isn't really my forte... but I do like to make special ones and personalizing them.. so I got my "pretty" head on and made this for them.

The papers are the gorgeous Violet Crush Kaisercraft collection that were in my Jones DT kit this month.  Check it out too... purple!  I know!  Told ya, I am turning purple this year for some reason.  Mind you, it isn't difficult with these papers cos they is lushness indeedily.  I added Seedless Preserves DI around the edges of the papers and card base - well, I can't make a clean and simple card to save me life, there has to be some sort of inkiness going on.  The words are computer generated and die cut with Nestabilities.  I added some Kaisercraft Wisteria paper flowers... but whilst they are gorgeous, they looked a little pale, so I smudged some more of the Seedless Preserves on to them and then slapped some Glue & Seal on the edges of the petals and then sprinkled Rock Candy Distress Glitter over the top so they sparkle gently.  A twist of ribbon and there it was made.  One day I am going to go on a proper card making course and learn how to do the fancy stuff that a lot of people do!

I am scheduling this post as today I am travelling to Pickwell Farm in Southampton for two days of Melt Pot Master Classing... so I better get a wiggle on and get myself some beauty sleeps!  Have a great weekend, don't forget to pop back tomorrow for a brand new Sunday Stamper challenge.  Thanks for looking... TTFN

Hels x

Coffee Time!

...tis a yonk and a half since I did any altered recycling and when my mate Sue sent me a tin of coffee a few weeks ago, I fell right in lurve not only with the contents (Nescafe Azzera - NOM!) I also fancied the little tin that the coffee came in.  Being as I drink gallons of the stuff, I soon finished the tin and got straight onto the alterations.  My Jones of Nottingham DT pack came through a few weeks ago and in it is the brand new Violet Crush papers from Kaisercraft.  Purple? And me? Not normally but these are SO gorgeous, I dived right in. They are... LUSH!

I cut strips of the papers to wrap around the tin, edging them with Seedless Preserves DI before sticking them down.  Once they were attached, I added a little "spine" up the back of the tin, adding some fabby natural coloured buttons, also from Jones, tying threads of jute through them - nobody likes a bare button now, do they?

I added some gorgeous Kaisercraft papers flowers - these are Wisteria coloured and I spritzed them with Black Marble Dylusions and a purple colour Cosmic Shimmer mist.  The Word Band had a smidge of Antique White Kaisercraft paint smudged into the letters to make them pop more and then I used my own brute strength to bend the Band so it curved around the tin.  Ok, ok, they are pretty easy to bend so I admit, I am not that strong lol *not as strong as the coffee I have been quaffing*   The sentiment is from a Studio 490 stamp set, stamped onto more of the papers so they co-ordinate and it was popped into a Memo Pin to hold it in place.  I needed a nice container for my paintbrushes, so here it is.  Please don't tell me off about the state of me brushes though, they are all well loved and the one that is really fat is like that on purpose - oh yes, I purposefully forgot to clean it out properly... ahem... mmmm, believe that?

I shall away now, I am scheduling this post and it is way past my bedtime... plus it is chillywillybilly here tonight... I am fair frozen, the radiator in the Room of Stash is hot but is has to try and get heat around a room that is, well, at best described as... messy.. or untidy... more like chaotic.  One day I WILL get it sorted... I will... one day!  Thanks for looking... have a great day. TTFN

Hels x