Christmas tag for FJ no. 2

I have made my second Christmas tag for the Funkie Junkie 12 Tags of Christmas challenge, although it is for Linda's first challenge week - I'm just catching up. She has now posted her third one, so I still have one mare to catch up but not lagging behind too much lol. 

I am also joining in with the other Linda at Studio L3 for the Compendium of Curiosities challenge which is to use distress markers. Tim has 2 techniques in his book on P.50, I used the second, adding my own take on it of course.

I drew inspiration from Linda's gorgeous tag wanting to use the metallic distress stains and the marbling technique as explained on P.46 of Tim’s fabulous book, ‘The Compendium of Curiosities’ – Book 2.

I used picket fence, tarnished brass and vintage photo to create the background then added some peeled paint DI before flicking with water and drying. Don't ya just love these gorgeous Christmas Blueprint stamps by Mario III?

Using coffee archival ink I stamped both the Christmas tree and snowflake from the set and stamped the Christmas tree a second time, colouring it in with the distress markers and cutting it out. I added the baubles to the tree instead of to the side. The die-cut letters are the typeset strip die covered with glossy accents, I filled in the baubles with this too.

Some other bits and pieces to finish off including pleated tissue tape covered with the tarnished brass DS. I also painted the metal pieces & tree bulb with the picket fence and tarnished brass DSs, drying them with the heat gun as they 'pooled'. Another look I really love.

I have to say I wasn't happy with the tree at first, it stood out far too much, so I also painted it with the picket fence and tarnished brass DIs, it now blends far better with the rest of the tag whilst still being quite prominent.

You can see I put some snow round the branches too.

Linda's 12 Tags of Christmas is an inspiration challenge and there will be a winner drawn at the end of the 12 weeks for those who have entered each one. There is plenty of time to take part as each tag challenge will remain open until the 17th December, so no excuses if you miss any. The sponsor is The Funkie Junkie Boutique, which is Linda's fantastic on-line store where she stocks lots of fabulous products to produce vintage, shabby chic projects.


Other challenges to have fun with -
Sweet Stampin' challenge - Vintage
Anything but a card - Shiny, Sparkly, Blingy - my die cut letters and baubles are very shiny with glossy accents over them.
That Craft Place - Make your own background
Crafty Mess challenge - Distressed / aged



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Sadly I needed to make a sympathy card today. We had a phone call from Ken's sister on Friday to say her husband was in the Atkinson Morley hospital having had a huge brain bleed, he passed away Sunday afternoon.

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Have a good week and as my friend Joyce says, make sure you give your loved ones a cuddle when you next see them.

Take care.

hugs {brenda} xox

A Holtz-ian Halloween!

Well I said I would get creating and here is my tag for Grungy Monday - it's so good to have you back Linda -  and the theme at Simon Says Stamp and Show is things with wings, so this fits that as well.

Totally in the style of TH and using TH products I have made this Halloween tag which was inspired by the great man himself on his blog HERE.

I really have very limited Halloween stamps so I have used nature ones as well as cut out vintage images to get the effects I wanted to try and re-create. I drew the barbed wire and added the mini staples as per T!m himself.

Supplies -
Crackle paint - dusty concord
Seasonal DIs - seedless preserves, ripe persimmon, gathered twigs
Stamps - Andy Skinner back to nature
Downloads - Graphics Fairy and unknown
Inka Gold - silver
Mini attacher
Skull - one of my clay moulds
Ribbons

I really enjoyed playing again.

This morning it is another of those cold but beautiful autumn days and I thought I would share a couple of photos from my front garden.

This bush was covered in amazing cobwebs and the sun shining on the dew just captured my attention.

.... and some warm autumn berries.

I hope your weekend is going well; have the most wonderful day whatever you are doing.

luv {brenda} xoxox

Other challenges to have fun with -
Simon Says Stamp - Halloween / Goth
Creative Craft Crew - Spooky Fun
Everybody Art - Halloween
Crafts and Me - Orange
Stampotique - Tag Time
Crafts 4 Eternity - Purple and orange
Alphabet challenge - S for soon to be Halloween
Craft Your Days Away - Halloween colours

Tag for two challenges

Well I hope the two Lindas don't mind that nearly everyone will combine both the Grungy Monday and the Simon Says Stamp and Show challenges this week as we have a fabulous Tim Holtz 12 tags of Christmas to follow and make a tag at the same time. What luck.

To see what techniques were used in the making of this tag, take a look at Tim's tutorial and why not have a go yourself - if you haven't already that is.

Supplies used -
Stamps - TH - papillon and artful flight; La Blanche leafy flourish; Rubber Stampede text.
DIs - worn lipstick, weathered wood, stormy sky, vintage photo.
Black, green and burgundy embossing powders.
Vellum and archival ink.

I have the perfect present for this tag and hopefully I will show you some pictures of it - the wedding book project I have been making. I am nearly there.

Just a little reminder that there is an 'Anything Goes' theme over at Fashionable Stamping Challenges, unfortunately it hasn't been advertised so we would appreciate anything you could do to get the word out as there are two prizes this fortnight. I hope I will see you there.

Have a fabulous week.

luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

Travel Pouch Grungeboard Extravaganza for Grungy Monday

Happy Grungy Monday everyone

I have been so excited as our lovely hostess Linda at Grungy Monday asked me to be a guest designer for this week and I have really thought hard as to what to make. This week we are focusing on a fabulous Tim Holtz product - Grungeboard or Grungepaper. You can use it in any way you like. Tim shows examples on his blog and there are videos on You Tube. Please go over and see the amazing contributions from both Linda and Dawn who is the other fab guest this week.

One of the things I have thought about making for a long while now is a travel pouch. It is an idea that has been mulling around in my head for a few years and what I mean is a small wallet that can hold postcards and journalling tabs for when I am visiting somewhere new or on my travels. Often when we go away to a new country I end up buying a small notebook to jot names of places and things we have seen, and end up keeping pictures and brochures etc. in the paper bags they were bought with.

So this is the sketch of the wallet I visualised with notes about it. I quite often start with a picture and ideas when embarking on a larger project. As you can see I wanted 2 pouches, a way to hold a pen or pencil, somewhere to keep some stamps (that got lost along the way), and some way to secure it.  I knew I was going to get the sewing machine out on this one as well as use the usual glues and eyelets or brads.

I made a paper one first and realised I needed to have gussets in the sides of the pouches to let them expand a bit so they would hold a reasonable amount if needed. I also found my own 'suggested' measurements needed adjusting too (hence the crossings out on my sketch). Once I had done all of that, I was off.

In making this I learnt that grungepaper shrinks when made wet and then heat dried so I lost some of the dimension - but everything still fits ok. I also learnt that this process buckles the paper too and I ended up ironing it with a damp cloth to get it flat(ish) again. My sewing machine found the double thickness difficult and also archival or stazon ink didn't like the finished surface. But saying all that this was an incredible project to make. At one or two points I thought I had bitten off more than I could chew but I am pleased with the end result.

I am not going to give a blow by blow account of how this was made but I hope the photos will give you a good idea.

The back of the travel pouch

A view showing the whole length of it.

A view of the front - you can see the fastener for the leather strap.

Inside - one pouch holds postcards, the other holds cut card for journalling.

A view inside - you can see the gussets and how much more room they give to the pouch.

I sewed on the little pieces to hold a pen.

A side on view again showing the gussets - they were very difficult to get sewn in.

The fastener is a leather strap and buckle from 7Gypsies. I bought a couple of these the last time I was in California - about 5 years ago and this is the first time I have used one and it worked a treat.

Main Products used
12 x 12 Grungepaper
Distress Inks - worn lipstick, fired brick, tumbled glass, vintage photo, black soot
Tim Holtz paper stash - shabby vintage
Distress staind - fired brick, vintage photo
Fresco paint - vintage lace
Tim Holtz stamps - the journey, lost and found
Dies - Tattered florals, Sizzix flower layers 8
I get most of my products on-line and and as I am DT member for the Stamp Man I tend to buy from their on-line shop.

 This feels so soft, I love holding it - just like sheep-skin leather.

We are so looking forward to seeing what you make with Tim's grungeboard or grungepaper. This is the only requirement for this challenge, anything else you use can be from your own stash. You might like to wander over to the All Things Tim discussion group at Yahoo. Gloria, the list mom, has a Grungy Monday file there where participants can upload their art for the group to admire. The address is:  groups.yahoo.com/group/allthingstim

Have a fabulous week.

Luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

Edit - Sorry folks just realised Mr Blogger scheduling didn't work as I was out at work yesterday and didn't get back in till 11.00pm last night. Oh well here we are now xoxox

Rusty embossing

Yay I have managed to get a tag done that has been inspired by both the rusty embossing background from the fab Tim Holtz for Grungy Monday and the Chestnut Theme challenge at Gingersnap Creations called On The Road.

You can find the explanation for the rusty embossing background HERE on Tim's blog where he shows how he has used it with a Christmas tag. There are some fabulous pieces as inspiration by Linda, the lovely hostess and two fabulous guest designers Barbara and Rinda.

Mine has the car, map and a bit of the nuts and bolts as Gingersnap's overall focus for the month is Steampunk and you know me I love to play in this genre.

This looks out of focus, but the glossy embossing hasn't helped on the truck. But you can see how I have added the journalling.

Supplies
TH die ATC and corners.
DIs - weathered wood, vintage photo, frayed burlap, walnut stain and black soot.
Clear embossing powder.
Old book of AA maps and bits from my oddments box.

Have a good day and thanks for stopping by to have a look at my tag today.

luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

Challenges to have fun with -
Grungy Monday - TH technique
Gingersnap Creations - On the Road
Paper Crafting Journey - For him
Crafty Creations - Boyz to men
Make my Monday - Vintage and embossing
Crafty Catz - Tags

Grungy Monday 12

Here is my contribution to Linda's Tim Holtz challenge at her blog, Studio L3. This week she has searched into the archives and found a technique of Tims that he showed in April 2008. It's his 'shabby chic' technique but this time using printed paper and made much more grungy. Click the link if you would like to see how to do it.

I have used  Tims Crowded Attic paper stash and focused on the buttons and sewing parts of it. You don't always have exactly the same resources as the inspiration piece and this is one of those times where I have had to substitute things. For instance I didn't have the papers he used (but that's good as it makes you stretch your creativity and come up with something totally personal to yourself) and I haven't got the dymo, espresso paint dabber, grunge pieces, nor the same harlequin stamp, but I improvised and I think it has worked ok.

I love that this has a little tag attached to it.

Hope your weekend has gone well. Our BBQ went well this afternoon and we have just finished cleatring up after everyone went home.

luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

Other challenges to have fun with -
CYDA - Vintage
Ink on my Fingers - Words (Thanks Hels this fitted perfectly this week - just luck I know!!!!)

Dragonflies and Butterflies

Happy Friday to you all.

Today sees a new member join our team at The Stamp Man and I am so pleased it is my good blogging buddy Angela from Pages by The Sea. I am going to have to really be on my toes now as she creates the most stunning pieces of art, do pop over and take a look at her work.

So for this fortnight Angela has been thrown in at the deep end and is hostessing the challenge. We are looking for Dragonflies and Butterflies on your projects

My inspiration was drawn from the challenges at Studio L3 where the amazing Linda has found another of the fabulous Tim's techniques which is like an embossing batik; Simon Says Stamp and Show where we are challenged to use distress/torn paper,  and The Cheerful Stamp Pad  to use things with wings.

I used Tim's tutorial to stamp the dragonflies and embossed them, then added ink all over the card. The stamped dragonflies were then ironed to remove the embossing powder. I shadow stamped some small dragonflies over the card. The butterflies were created using the same technique and I cut them out and inked over them, leaving the EP on them, small micro beads were added to the body. My sentiment was stamped with black soot DI and I used one of Tim's speckled stamps and used paint to go around the edges; they were also distressed with a distressing tool and inked over. The mount paper edges were distressed and torn.

Supplies used -

DIs - shabby shutters, peeled paint, weathered wood, tattered rose, walnut stain, black soot
Stamps - Tim Holtz Urban Tapestry set and Papillon, Aspects of Design Dragonflies
Clear embossing powder.
Acrylic paint

Have a good day and I hope to see you over at the Stamp Man challenge blog. Do go over and take a look at the fabulous inspiration from my fabulous teamies, wow, they are really gorgeous projects.

luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

Grungy Monday - Brushless Watercolour and meeting up with blogging friends.

Hi All

I have had an amazing week meeting up with fellow bloggers. Last Wednesday Ken and I drove to Maidstone to meet up with Joyce at Gram's Treasures. We all went for a meal and had a fabulous evening getting to know each other better and the men chattered away and got on really well too.  I met Joyce on-line over a year ago when she won my first blog candy and we have stayed in touch ever since. Joyce lives in Canada but has been visiting  England as this is where she lived as a child. Joyce, if you read this, thankyou for your great company, it was lovely to meet you in the flesh. Then I had a great time this morning - I went and had coffee with Shirley at Shirl's Cards, who is on the LIIU with me. Shirl lives in Ireland but originates from my neck of the woods here and is off on holiday today with her family who still live in this area. My goodness, again it was fantastic to meet up and the time just passed far too quickly, hopefully we will get together again sometime when she is back.

Well I have been very busy with projects that you will see coming up during the month of June, but I had to have a go at the challenge that Linda has posed us at Studio L3 this week. Thanks for keeping this going Linda. You need to go take a look at Tim's great tutorial where he shows us how to use stamps and inks to produce a brushless watercolour effect on watercolour paper. It's a fab technique and produces great results - but you will need to have a practice at it - well I did!!!

 I haven't made my piece into a card, I'm not sure it should be, just leaving it as a piece of art - I really quite like it just as it is.

 As you can see this gives a great blurred, watercolour effect and I love the mix of colours you can achieve.

Great saying eh?

Linda has told us on her blog this week of two recent cases where people have been using Tim's work and claiming it as their own. One person has lifted Tim's tutorials and not given him any credit for the them at all and someone else has scanned or photographed his ideaology keys and is selling them as a pdf file for use in blog work. How can anyone do this? As Linda says we are a sharing community and will give anyone help, ideas and inspiration, we look, we learn and we create our own which could be similar in style - but actually taking and using others work for our own personal gain is completely different. I really hope these people can be stopped.

You may have seen that I have stepped down from the MAWTT design team. I am moving so much more into the artsy, vintage and shabby styles that I am unable to work with alot of digi images and do not get pleasure from using many of them. But I will miss my DT team mates hugely. They are a great bunch of girls and have become such good blogging friends. Thanks girls for all your love and support over the past year and please stay in touch.

I hope you have had a good week, even with all the Blogger problems again. What have you got planned for the weekend? We are going to a wedding reception that Richard and Sal are holding for all their family and friends who didn't go to Cyprus. I haven't seen them since we returned and I want to find out all about their honeymoon.

Take care, enjoy the Bank Holiday weekend if you are in the UK.

luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

Folklore, superstition and old wives tales

My Mum used to live by a number of old wives tales and she totally believed in them. I take most of them with a pinch of salt.

When I saw that the theme at Simon Says Stamp and Show was precisely this I had a think about the ones Mum used to say. We were never allowed to put shoes on the table; breaking a mirror is 7 years bad luck she used to say; a bird that flew into the house meant a death; it is supposedly good luck to find a 4 leaf clover - and I used to spend hours as a small child looking for one; spilled some salt - then throw it over your left shoulder; we could never cut our nails on a Friday or a Sunday because it was bad luck; if you have an itchy right hand you were to soon come into money, but if it was the left hand then you would be parting with it; and if you dropped a knife on the floor you had to stand on it and she would never ever receive a brooch (or something sharp) without giving some money in return.

Anyway - I used to love the nature ones - a patch of blue sky before noon meant you would see the sun for the rest of the day, in the autumn it was good luck to catch 3 leaves from the trees before they hit the ground, three butterflies seen together would bring good luck and if the first butterfly you saw in the year was white you would have good luck all year.

Wo I could go on, but here is my take on the white butterfly tale.

Inspiration has been drawn from -
Simon Says Stamp and Show - Old wives tales
Grungy Monday - TH colour blocking technique
Craft Barn - using gesso
Just for fun - make a postcard (mine is 6 x 4 ins)

Creating and making-
I made 3 different butterflies, all stamped onto fabric, one without gesso, one stamped into wet gesso and one stamped onto dry gesso to choose the one I wanted - chose the dry gessoed one and highlighted it with promarkers.

Stamped butterflies on wet and dry gesso

Bottom butterfly stamped straight onto the fabric and highlighted with promarkers.

Background colour blocked using Tim's technique - see Here. Edged with DI,

splashed with water and heat dried.

Overstamped with DIs, edges stamped with gesso finished by painting edges with crackle paint.

Trinket pin and bird pinned to the butterfly.

Metal flower primed with gesso and then crackle painted, mini rosette with additional small flower also gessoed and gem added. String, pin and ticket added.

A close up of the buterflies.

Supplies -
Studio - gesso
Idealology - metal foliage, adornments bird, trinket pin
TH - mini paper rosette die
Stamps - TH nature's moments, urban grunge, papillon. La Blanche swirl
DIs - bundled sage, tattered rose, antique linen, pumice stone
Adirondack dye pads - lettuce, cranberry, caramel
Distress crackle paint - picket fence, old door

Well I hope you saw a white butterfly this year - do you know what I bet that this colour is the first of the season anyway!..

Enjoy your weekend. I am off to Sue's 50th birthday party this afternoon and at the moment the sun is shining, let's hope it stays that way.

Take care and thanks for dropping in.

luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

Grungy Monday meets Stampotique

The Key To The Secret Garden

Hi All - With DT pieces to catch up on, since coming back from Cyprus, I have only just found time to 'play', and I am enjoying every minute.

Well are you watching the wedding today? I will catch up on it later as we are all off to Thorpe Park to meet up with family who are coming up from Kent. This is a great opportunity for the younger ones to enjoy the rides while Granny looks after the little ones. Mind you I do like the water rides, so I may get a chance to have a go on them.

I hope you like this next piece of art. I am really pleased with it and have enjoyed the experimenting and playing with inks and paint and embossing powders.

I really wanted to experiment with the TH technique - a new dimension - at Grungy Monday this week. This is to create a niche for a found trinket to sit in and Tim gives a great tutorial on his blog. I also haven't entered the Stampotique challenge for a while and have several new stamps waiting to be inked and used and this week there is a great sketch to follow, so with 'anything goes' at Simon Says as well, these were my inspiration.

I coloured the mushrooms with DIs and used promarkers, the suede paint and stickles on the fairy.

The flowers were from my box and I die cut the leaves using a downloaded text paper and played with it in photoshop to get the right colours.

This shows the niche that the key is sitting in. The blog link for the tutorial is at the top of the page. I used the distress embossing powders on the key to give it more of a verdigris look.

Suppplies
Stampotique stamps - by Jill Penney and Jo Capper-Sandon
TH distrress embossing powders - peeled paint, weathered wood (on the key)
DIs - aged mahogany, peeled paint, victorian velvet, weathered wood, walnut stain, pumice stone
Stazon - timber brown
Crown suede paint - chocolate
Promarkers - satin, blushdusky pink, ivory, pear green
Sakura white glaze pen and glitter pen
Sentiment - my own
Nestie - labels one
Marianne Creatables and Crealies leaf dies
TH stamp - Nature's Moments
Tissue paper, modge podge, gesso
Stickles - crystal
Papers - TH Lost and Founf and unknown
A key from my (late) Dad's key wallet

I hope you have a great weekend. Thanks for stopping by to take a look.

luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox