Beach Day

Hi Everyone!  Not sure how many people will read these latest posts as I'm sure a lot of you have given up on me posting any new projects but here goes anyway!!

I am really pleased with how this page cam together and even more pleased that Scrapbook Magazine decided to use it on their front cover!  That certainly brought a big smile to my face!  I've yet to make the main image on the cover ... but that gives me something to aim for.

This project features Dekromounts which are really sturdy mounds for card and scrapbook pages. They are plain cream and can be sanded, painted, embossed, inked etc and so are good fun to work with.  I was given a kit by Scrapbook Magazine and so for this layout it gently inked the edges in victorian velvet DI and them mounted it onto the corresponding back plate which I had covered with Autumn Gold gilding flakes.

I stitched some of the other papers in the kit to my background  before using white acrylic paint and a Tim Holtz burlap stencil to add texture. I added some greens and pinks using gelatoes which I blended with my finger to finish the background.

I filled a small bottle with some same and small shells before adding my message in a bottle, tied with natural twine.

I love prima flowers as they alway sit so well on the page and their colours are always beautiful.  I used them, coupled with some Petallo plains to frame my bottle, along with curly wire stems for my blooms.

I inked up the beach day checklist to match my layout and created my postcard stamps and ink.  The journalling was created using my lovely pink typewriter (which makes me smile ever time I get it out).

The text reads:

After the storm subsides and the waves no longer crash onto the beach

Treasures of the deep which are normally hidden, lie uncovered on the sand.

A spiral castle of green, pink and gold gleams in the white foam

I capture it's beauty before returning it to the depths of the ocean where it belongs.

The story behind the photo is that I was walking on the beach in the winter sunshine on the day after the big storms we had this winter.  I saw this beautiful shell sat on the edge of the sand where the water was lapping.  Most of these type of shells on the beach are just plain cream in colour as they are empty but this one still had the animal inside and the colours on it were just amazing.  I would love to have a shell like this in my collection, but I have to wait to find one which is empty. 

This lovely metal starfish has been in my stash for ages as I can't replace it and it's so realistic. I thought this project justified using it and so it now sits proudly on display rather than hiding in my drawer. 

Thank you for visiting today ... 

xx

Watch the Birdy

What a hoot this was!!  

We visited Dimbola Lodge on the Isle of Wight whilst we were there on holiday this half term.  The Lodge is the home of Julia Margaret Cameron who was a photographer in the mid 1800's and whose portraiture was very influential at the time.

Aside from all the rooms of her images, there is a dressing up room and once we got started, we couldn't stop and ended up spending over an hour in there perfecting our Edwardian poses for the camera! 

The lighting was shocking so all the photos needed a lot of work in Photoshop but I'm pleased with the end result.

This layout is based on an old draughts board.  I taped areas using masking tape before giving it a light coating of Gesso and then one of copper Steward Gill paint.  Once both layers were dry, I stamped the filmstrip, butterflies and peacock feathers onto the board using Staz-on and arranged the cleudo cards and 'murder cards' pocket onto one corner.  I added a little blue glitter stickle to the eye of each feather.

The grungy panel was added using Matt Medium and a combination of 2 embossing powders - Tattered Rose Distress and Silver Fox Enamelz.  (It's not as shiny in real life - but it picked up my daylight lamp - evening photography has its drawbacks!)

The vintage image behind our photograph is from a book of old black and white photographs.  It is translucent so that the board can still be seen behind it and this was achieved using transfer glaze.  

The flower braid is by Tim Holtz and was spritzed with Shimmerz and the circles were cut using the washer board alterations die.

The stopwatch was created with black UTEE poured onto a La Blanche stamp (which I killed in the process - ooops!) Once dry I applied gold metallic rub-on to highlight the detail.

I cut the bird from balsa wood using a sizzix die which I then spritzed, applied silver gilding paste and a swirl stamp.

I inked and stamped a small tag to go in the murder cards pocket, detailing the date and location of the photograph, fixed down the draughts pieces and film strip and completed my layout with Tim Holtz Alphaparts letters for the title.

I hope you like the end result and our rather sober expressions and ridiculous outfits bring a smile to your face! x

Snakes & Ladders

I purchased a 1950's snakes & ladders board and used this as the base for my layout.  The photos of the children having fun on a long slide were perfect for this project.  I covered the board with Tim Holtz music tissue tape which I crumpled up to give a great textured background.  Once this was dry, I painted it with Steward Gill paints which give a lovely subtle sheen.

I inked up two plain tags with distress ink and then hit the Frantage again (I can't resist it!!).  This time I used a combination of silver and Pearlized mica fragments.  The chance card is from an old monopoly set which I stamped and inked and the card behind is actually the 10 of clubs which I lightly painted and rubbed off before inking with black soot.  The third tag was inked and stamped and then silver embossed around the edge.

I wrote the sentiment in an italic style onto strips of cream cardstock which I tore and inked.   A couple of strips of tissue tape and a few metal embellishments, including a lovely glass bead which I attached to a vintage brass chain completed the layout.

I hope you like it! 

Have a great day and keep an eye out for those slippery snakes!! x

Corrugated Page

I'm just back from a lovely scrapbooking weekend in Devon. I love the creative atmosphere that is generated when people all come together, as my art is usually such a solitary activity.  I also cherish being able to craft for as long as you want without having to stop and make meals or do the laundry!!  What a luxury!

We were concentrating on using game pieces and so this layout features large jigsaw pieces.  I used these pieces to link into the photos I had taken of two of my boys who often fall into step together when we are out for family walks.

I started by using acrylic paints on my card and then I used shabby ivory embossing enamel on the opposite corners and embedded  Frantage gilded micra fragments whilst it was still hot.

The jigsaw pieces were covered with old dictionary paper and an old map which I then distressed and stamped onto.  The boys' initials were cut from a vintage pictorial alphabet book.  The little metal number was tinted with pesto acohol ink, as was the small sprocket.

I stamped the sentiment using individual alphabet stamps from 4 different packs onto some Kraft Resist paper which I then distressed with Shabby Shutters.  A few more cogs and sprockets and one of Prima's gorgeous lightbulbs completed the layout.

Hope you are having a good week ... thanks for stopping by! x

Fly

I have just discovered Fran-tage by Stampendous and I LOVE IT!!  The shabby embossing enamels are beautiful and as for the mica fragments ... well don't get me started!!

I wanted to have a play with them straight away so I used some of the corrugated card from the box my order arrived in as my background.  I started by picking the cardboard apart to expose the 'ribs' before using paint dabbers over some of the background.  I wanted to create two big splodgy areas so I tried melting the shabby enamel in a melt pot.  However, I found that I lost all the colours and glitter and ended up with white.  So I poured this onto the card which allowed me to re-adhere more embossing enamel over the top.  I also tried heating it from below but as the card is quite thick, the heat doesn't really get through sufficiently to get the melt going and I was worried I would set fire to my project before I'd even got going!!  When the enamel was still wet I added the mica flakes and beads.

The birdcage is cut from Tim Holtz Kraft resist paper which I then inked and made little dangly pendants for the bottom.

I cut the birds with my cricut and stuck them onto wire and allowed to dry.

The flowers are made with crepe paper which I stamped with text and spritzed with glimmer mists.  Once dry, I cut individual petals and stuck them around the centre on a cocktail stick.  Creating them like this allowed me to make big soft and shabby blooms which I have fixed by pushing the stick through the background, gluing and trimming.

I painted the old watch face with Viva Gold metal paint and used PVA around the edge before dipping it into Cosmic Vintage Mica Flakes.  The words are a Stampotique stamp which I stamped and embossed in black before embossing the ends with Fran-tage and mica flakes.

  The card is double mounted onto Lost and Found papers. I have torn, distressed, curled and inked the first layer and I embossed the back layer with music before inking the edge with black soot and tattered rose.  I also added some gold rub-on with my finger to accentuate the embossing.

I love the soft summery shades the Fran-tage adds - hopefully it will remind me of summer now we are getting grey rainy days :(



I have entered this into the following challenges:

Crafty Mess - 19th Challenge: Anything Goes
Craft Pad - No. 191 Vintage
Stampin' for the Weekend - Challenge 18: Feeling Floral
That Craft Place - Make you own Background
Totally Gorjuss - Punch and Die
  Hope you are having some sunshine wherever you are ... x

Butterfly Canvas

I recently got a card through to door to collect a parcel from the local sorting office.  I was mystified as to what is was as I hadn't ordered anything that I could remember.  So, what a lovely surprise it was to collect the parcel and find it was a top which my Mum had bought for me as a treat!  It has purple and mauve butterflies diagonally across the front with little silver studs in between and is gorgeous.

I wanted to make something to thank her and use the butterfly theme.  I started by making the large alterations butterfly with acetate behind the wings which I coloured with alcohol inks.  I then used distress stains to create my background and I added distress inks to increase the colour on various parts. 

The butterfly border is another Tim Holtz die which I cut from some of his District Market paper and coloured with Mica Powders so they shimmer subtly on top of the background writing.  The large swirl stamp and the seed head stamp is by Donna Downey.

The doily was spritzed with glimmer mists and very carefully allowed to dry as doilies fall apart very easily once sprayed!  

The photograph is of the children and is printed out onto canvass and the journalling is printed onto cardstock which I tinted with inks.  The journalling reads: 

It's not just Butterflies that Emerge in New Forms, 

Children MetamorphoseRight in Front of Your Eeyes, 

Chaning into Young Adults with their own Thoughts and Opinions, 

Something that is Truly Amazing.  

It's the Best Journey to be a Part of.

I bought a canvas and painted the edges to match my project with acrylic paints.  I stamped butterflies on all the edges and used Tissue Tape for added interest.  Once dry, I fixed the project to the canvas.

I hope Mum likes it as I was pleased with the end result.

Poppy Card

It was my good friend Sue's birthday this weekend and so I made her this card.  I had hoped to get time last week to make it so it would arrive in time for her birthday but that plan went a little pear-shaped so it's going to make a late entry!! 

I used Poppy Meadow stamp set by IndigoBlu to create my meadow border and lovely poppies.   I stamped everything in Ranger Archival ink and them painted my flowers with watercolours.  I used Caran D'Ache Neocolor III wax pastels which give a fantastically vibrant colour, particularly if you dip them into water and colour directly onto your design.

The butterfly is from a stamp set by Lost Coast Designs.  I coloured it with pencils and used a red stickle on the wingtips before 3D mounting it using silicone glue.

The sentiment is by Tim Holtz.

I like the simplicity of this card - and I adore IndigoBlu's stamps, particularly the silhouette borders.

I've entered this card into Phindy's Friday Challenge - Monochromatic Green.

Have a great week. x

Never More

The new theme at Gingersnap Creations is the famous poem, The Raven, by Edgar Alan Poe.  The word 'nevermore' features many times throughout the verses and so as a play on that, I decided to split my word up as my poor man is definitely Never More!!!

I used stamps by Tim Holtz and Green Pepper Press to create the grizzly scene and I inked and masked the background with distress inks and dylusions sprays.  A splat of gold acrylic grunged it up a little more before the swirls (In My Words by Fancy Pants) were added.

I used an ideology acrylic chip for the title and a skull charm to finish it off - lovely and creepy!!

As Halloween is upon us, why not see what gruesome images you can find in your stash and join in the fun?!!

Keep craftful (is that a real word - I'm not sure?!!)

x

Love

I did a tutorial over at Gingersnap Creations on making stampboard frames for little treasures and this page was the basis for adding this frame. 

I created a little secret love message for my husband and popped it in a bottle.  I then added a little Vintaj brass tag with the has the word imagine stamped into it.

I created the background paper using alcohol inks and blending solution and I inked some shells onto it using a Crafters Workshop mask.

I inked up some watercolour paper with distress inks and then spritzed it with water and sprinkled rock salt over it.  After the paper dried, I brushed of the salt and was left with lovely watery patterns over my paper.  I used this in the centre of my page.

The tag was inked with distress and then I used molding paste in green, brown and yellow over the shell mask to make my nautilus shells.  The starfish was clear embossed before I inked the paper and then the embossing was removed with a hot iron to leave a flat white image. 

 

A quick pop to the beach to find mussel shells actually turned up the lovely razor shell (for which I always feel very privileged to be given by the sea) and which was fantastic for this page. 

I am really pleased with this project as sometimes using very dark shades of inks can be a bit scary (!) so this layout did take me a few days to get it to come together.  It's another one for my Isles of Scilly album which is now nearing completion (about time too!!).

If you want to know how to make the frames, use the link above to my tuturial where you can also find an earlier tutorial on how to use masks to create 3D images using molding paste.

Have a crafty day everyone ...  x

Max

This month at Gingersnap Creations, we are concentrating on the Joys of Childhood and this week's challenge is G113 Babes and Tots.

I had a great photo in mind for this challenge of all my tribe in the bath with squirty soap on their heads but I'm a bit lacking in bathroom themed stamps so instead, I've opted for some shots of my little boy (now aged 13) on the beach.  Funny how they don't really change isn't it?  Still happy to pose for the camera and still got a ready smile ... well at least some of the time anyway!

My background paper was white linen and I used a combination of glimmer sprays and a Crafter's Workshop template (mini seashells) to create the seaside effect.  The palm tree, stamp and crab are all from Tattered Angels beach screen prints stamps.

I created the title using a technique shown to me at the Tim Holtz workshop I went to back in February.  I painted grungeboard squares with black paint dabbers and inked the grungeboard latters with Vintage Photo.  I adhered the 2 parts to make faux ink blocks which I think look really cool.

A starfish in the corner completed the page along with a little dusty concord and faded jeans distress around the edge of the page.

This is a really great challenge to enter as it is a wide category giving you plenty of scope so I hope you feel inspired to dig out some old photos and head on up to the challenge!!!  

Happy crafting :)

The City That Never Sleeps

This is my tag for Grungy Monday Challenge 12 over at Studio L3.

The technique for the challenge was absolutely that ... a Challenge ... well for me at least!  This was tag number 4!   The difficultly I had was getting the paint off the embossed areas once dry.  Either it refused to budge or the paper started to fall apart as I rubbed over the area - I just couldn't seem to master it.  I gave up yesterday and returned this morning to have another shot but this time I barely left the paint to dry before removing it.  Hey presto!  the images came through and the paper stayed intact - phew!  

Once the background was complete with the New York skyline at the bottom and the clock at the top, I had a wrestle with my Dymo machine.  Sir Tim insists that these machines will take normal paper but my little gadget had other ideas.  It took me ages to get my paper strip through the feeder and then it wouldn't move the paper on after each letter.  I got around this problem by manually pulling it through each time I printed a letter.  Obviously, this was hard to judge exactly, but it turned out OK and I like the idea of being able to use media other than dymo tape.

I've used a variety of other things on this tag - a glimmer chip wing which I inked with distress and spritzed with glacier glimmer mist; a small piece of film strip into which I punched a washer, an ideology pen nib wound with embroidery silk, an idealogoy hinged clip and an ideology philosphy tag.

The old pocket watch was re-glazed with UTEE into which some small watch bits and pieces were dropped. 

Hope you like it!

Two Little Boys

This month is Wild West over at Gingersnap Creations and we've all been busy creating art which includes cowboys, cactuses and carts!!  

I've posted a tutorial to show how to create perspective background using a brayer.  If you've got a few minutes, pop over and take a look at it and get rollering!!

I've made this scene using the technique and put my two little cowboys in it to play.  Hope you like it and feel inspired to give it a try.  I'd love to see what fantastic art you come up with. x

Earth Laughs in Flowers

Over at the Play Date Cafe the challenge is based on a photograph and it's really interesting to see what this sparks in everyone's mind.  For some people, it's clearly the colour palette, whereas for me, it was the fencing that stood out and all I could think of was country cottage.

So, that's what I did ... I covered some card with Panduro fabric and let it dry before running it through my lovely Vagabond (thankyou QVC for offering easy-pay!).  I also used it to cut my fencing from Colour Core Cardstock (Whitewash Collection) which, if you are not familiar with this, is coloured cardstock with a linen finish and whitewashed.  If you sand it, the core colour shows through.  I love it as it comes in all different core colours and is really versatile, especially when embossed.

I then set about altering some existing embellishments I had to make my little house bloom.  The background card was painted with watercolour from pale green to pale blue.  A couple of stalks painted in for my sunflowers and it's finished.

Grungy Monday 07

I've finally found time to enter Linda's Grungy Monday challenge ... having gained an extra hour in my day today, due to being woken by a naughty cat at 5.30 (trust me ... he's not so cute when he's pulling the carpet outside my door!) and decided to use the time to make my tag. 

The challenge this week was to use Tim Holtz's  Distress Colour Ink Blocking technique.

I inked the background using the technique and then spritzed it with water and removed some of the ink to soften the effect.  I stamped the music on the side with a Versamark ink pad and painted violet mica powder over it. 

The birds and nest are from the Artful Flight CMS 069 set and the sentiment from Stuff to Say CMS110.

I sprayed the lace lightly with Dylusions inks and added a stitched heart button and fibres. Not a bad job just as the kids start to emerge for breakfast ... must diary another 5.30 slot!!

Be Bold

I have entered this card into the sketch challenge at Stampotique Designers Challenge.  This is my first use of this stamp and I really love how beautifully it stamps up.  

I have used the rickety house die from Tim Holtz as my background layer.  I thought hard before buying this die as I didn't want something just for halloween (despite my love of halloween ...  it is only once a year).  I have found that it can be altered quite easily to suite other occasions which justifies its place in my stash!  On this card, I put it into a script embossing folder then painted and sanded it.  Some black glitter and more black paint finished it off. 

I used paint dabbers and white ink to create the background and I painted my Queen with watercolours.

Just hope the Stampotique Team like it!!

Blue

How I love to mess with inks and mediums!  I created the background for this card using Shimmerz sprays which I built up in layers and dried off each time with a heat gun.

I used various items around my desk to create patterns on the background using acrylic paint and then I infilled two of the circles with glass bead gel medium which is a fantastic product as it dries clear and leaves the most fantastic dimensional effect created with minute glass beads.

Moth Fab is a Stampotique stamp and I coloured her with alcohol inks before mounting her onto the background.  The title strips were printed from my computer and edged with white caligraphy ink and a black sharpie pen.

I mounted the finished piece onto a plain card which I stamped with script in Chipped Sapphire and distressed with a little Victorian Velvet.

Tick Tock

 

I've created this card for the Stampotique Designers Challenge which is to create a piece  which includes an animal stamp.  Not sure if a fictional White Rabbit meets the brief but I'm about to find out!

I started by stamping and clear embossing the clock before creating the background using Adirondack inks and a brayer.  Once I was happy with the background, I ironed off the embossing to give a faux bleach result.

The stamps are all by Lavinia Stamps and I built up the scene with various images, using parts of the stamps where necessary.  The rabbit is stamped onto gloss paper and coloured with alcohol inks.  His watch is highlighted with a gold stickle (hard to see on screen!).   

The background card was coloured with distress ink and over stamped with script.  I splashed colourwash in cranberry randomly and then edged the paper with rusty hinge distress.  The final step was to edge the card again with a gold leafing pen.

Bags of Style

I had an idea to make a patchwork element from the leftover squares which were snipped out of all the pre-folded papers I used to infill the configurations box.  I glued them all randomly and gave them a coat of croco basecoat and the end result was really pleasing.  This was where the fun began as I felt as if I was in free fall after that, trying to get the layout to work!  

I needed the right sort of image to go with the paper so I decided on some of my daughter after an evening at guides making an outfit from old bags and images from magazines.  The  colours and grunge feeling seemed to match, particularly in their original format with our wooden front door as a backdrop.  However, as the day progressed, ideas kept changing the style of the page;  I decided to cut her out, stamp the background and dress the dummy with relevant newspaper clippings.  I added a metal ruler, a corrugated cardboard heart, buttons and a newpaper rosette flower.

As a result, I don't think the page is typical of my usual style and I keep looking at it to make sure it works.  Anyway, it's done now and I hope you like it  :)

The Best of Times!

As I said earlier, I went to the FANTASTIC event organised by PaperArtsy and LB Crafts.  

I was nervous about whether I would enjoy myself as I was going on my own but I needn't have worried. Everyone was really friendly and there was a great atmosphere.  I met some lovely people which made the day such good fun ... so thank you to all of you!  :) x

Tim was THE BEST.  Really amusing and approachable and very motivational.  We got LOADS of goodies to go into our boxes plus rolls of tissue tape and Ranger goodies. 

I did the 4 hours with Tim from 8.30am and the time just flew by.  I haven't finished my box (but then neither has Tim) but I will complete it asap and post it.  However, it's shaping up well (I think) so here it is so far ...

It has not feet yet and quite a bit of empty space ... but watch this space as it will be filling up soon!!

After lunch was our class with Lin and Leandra which had been extended from 2 hours to 3 1/2 hours so that we would all have time to complete our project.  How nice of them was that?!!!  

The amount of work they had put in to getting our kits ready was phenominal - all the card was pre-covered with the papers and all had been red line taped for us.  All the EZ Mount was cut (how awful a job was that - BIG THANKS to Karen - u r a STAR!!).  

Girls ... it was SO worth your efforts.  Fantastic project and really enjoyable class.  Only wish I lived nearer so could do more classes with you!!  

So, here it is!!

I loved making this piece and it has inspired me to make more 'things'.  I always scrap as I need to feel that what I make is useful and seeing my family look back through my albums and remember our trips fulfils this need.  However, this project was so enjoyable and looks so lovely that I am going to embrace it and make more items which are just made for the fun of it!!

Love Cupcakes

My best friend makes the most fabulous wedding and birthday cakes so for my birthday, she made me a cake for one!  It was so lovely, it deserved to be scrapped and so before I indulged in eating it, I played with the camera to get some fun shots.

The red on the paper matched the colour on the cake perfectly and the sentiment was ideal.  I used my Prima Build a Frame stamps to create complete or partial frames around the photos.  I backed one of the pictures onto old sheet music -  I love using old music on my layouts but I also liked the connection with this page as it really lifts you and makes your heart sing when someone takes time to make you a gift.  I inked the edge using distress inks before adding a little red glitter to highlight it.

The tag was already printed but I added thread, filmstrip and glitter ribbon to lift it more and co-ordinate it with my page.  I stamped the May Memories tag and distressed it with distress inks.  I stamped the small date frame and painted it with glimmer glam to give it a little sparkle.

Layout complete!