Friday 29 August 2014

Tim’s tag for August

Well it's lovely to be home and this is my first non-scheduled post for three weeks, what can I say? I wanted to keep my blog ticking over but I haven't been able to comment in all that time as the resort wifi would grind to a halt very quickly and my Ipad decided to be temperamental leaving me unable to access the internet for most of the time. But I will make up for it next week. I just have to get some projects finished for almost immediate deadlines and I will be out enjoying crafty days on Saturday and Sunday, so hopefully I will catch up with all of you who have been so kind to stay with me asap.

On to my Tim tag, amongst these DT and workshop deadlines I have managed to get my Tim tag completed this week. It follows his guidelines fairly closely but I have also followed my muse, as he said to do, and made changes as I was going along.

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I love Tim’s film strip and using the mini portraits in it, to me it creates such a great embellishment and focal point, adding more interest and detail. I collect and cut all the portraits from his paper pads to use this way.

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You can see it’s a very busy and textured background and the elements sit beautifully over the top.

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Can you live simply and seek adventures? I think so, I think we should seek new adventures every day and for me many of those are by experimenting with ideas, styles and techniques so that I can grow and be excited by the projects I produce.

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What adventures have you had lately?

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I’ll be out both days this weekend, a day with Andy Skinner tomorrow and a PaperArtsy day on Sunday. Lots of wonderful ‘play’.

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Stamp sets I used are – Merchantile, Classics #2, Classics #3

Thanks Tim for another inspiring tag, I look forward to seeing your creative make every month and of course September is not that far away now is it?? I’m off to link this up to Tim’s blog.

Take care , my love and hugs to you all and have a great weekend..

Brenda xxx

Wednesday 27 August 2014

Positive Thinking – Positivity Journal

Here we are again with another altered playing card as promised  – this time with a new colour background. You can see the partner one here if you missed it before, it's much grungier than this one.

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The background had been started some time ago and I think it was made using watercolour crayons and masks, but I’ve added more on the top with stamps and tissue tape.

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I really like the red heart with a predominantly pink background ……

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….. and all it needed added was a small die-cut and another of my computer generated quotes. I rarely watch the news these days because of all the ‘bad’ news they report on, so this is a great reminder to stay positive in myself.

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I am now back from holiday and have got most of the washing out of the way. I have some important projects to get finished and then I will be round to visit everyone again - poor wifi and Ipad problems resulted in me not being arable to keep up with all your wonderful makes whilst away so I am sooo looking forward to catching up.

Have a creative day and enjoy the rest of the week.

hugs Brenda xxx

Monday 25 August 2014

Dreams can come true

Here I am again with another journal page using the lovely Lynne Perrella stamps.

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This page was created using the following steps - - - - -
Using a piece of watercolour paper, spray with no more than three co-ordinating colours, let them blend a bit and heat dry.
Spray with a darker shade of colour randomly through a stencil/mask, then turn it over and press the excess ink onto the paper in other areas. Heat dry.
Stamp using a texture stamp and white acrylic paint and dry.
Stamp your focal image and a flourish using black archival ink.
Use the faux bleach technique to remove some of the colour over your focal image, this makes it stand out a little more.
Use oil pastels to add some small spots of colour.
Print/stamp a saying and add to your page using a black pen to outline/doodle round it.
I ink the edges of my paper with walnut stain distress ink.

There you have some great layer steps which you could use to produce your own journal page.

Have a wonderful week and hopefully some creative time.

hugs Brenda xxx

Friday 22 August 2014

A little touch of Tim at A Vintage Journey

Well after ‘time flying’ from the last challenge it is Alison’s turn to take us along another route of the journey and she is challenging us to think about a little bit of Tim. What she says is - Keep it small please!  I'm looking for Vintage and Tim Holtz style ATCs - a single ATC or a set - perhaps a trio that match.  And I'm being a purist here, so only ATCs, please - no ATBs or Chunky ATCs allowed.

Mmmmmm small eh? Ok here’s what I came up with using the shattered stains technique for the backgrounds and Tim’s papers for pieces of ephemera which fit perfectly with the 2 1/2 x 3 1/2 inch size pieces of art.

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I began by looking at Tim’s paper pads – they are a treasure trove for snippets and small bits for little projects. In fact long before Tim bought out his ephemera packs I had my own box full of small pieces I have kept from his papers and the things I love the most are his photo portraits. I use them quite a lot in projects and along with the photographic studio cards in the French Industrial stash the seeds of ideas for my ATCs were born.

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I cut out three portraits and 3 studio cards keeping colours together and along with lots of other bits from my box I managed three colourways.
I cut myself three pieces of card and used distress stains to make the backgrounds.

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I then cut three ATCs using Tim’s die and started designing the layouts. These are the rough placements before I distressed any of the elements.

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As I was designing these I imagined what was going on in their lives and what meaning all the little pieces of ephemera had for them.

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This couple got married during the war on the 15th January 1942. It had to be arranged at short notice as they didn’t want to wait until Jimmy came home again, he just didn’t know when that would be. He was being deployed in Europe after the bombing of Pearl Harbour the month before. After a ceremony with close family the couple went to the Thornton Theatre that night to see a show, on the way they stopped at Hill’s Photographic Studio to have some pictures taken as a memento of the day. Time was of the essence as Jimmy had to be back on base by 9.00 am the next morning.

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This pair of friends found themselves at Crystal Beach on their day off from work and spent their time chatting about starting a metal scrap business for the war effort. It was the 3rd October and the US had just announced their new initiative of " scrap days " encouraging every American to help the war effort by giving scrap consisting of metal and old clothing to the nearest scrap merchant who would then be able to provide much needed raw materials. To cement their partnership they decided to have a photo taken at the Gibson Studio.

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These girls have been friends since school and often enjoy a day out together when they can. On the 25th November they had their photo taken at the Walton Photography Studio before venturing out to do some shopping and then a game of Bingo at the Majestic Theatre. They enjoyed a bottle of fruit punch each and then found they were winners of £25, calling on the number 25. What a great day they had and 25 became their lucky number after that.

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It’s been lovely to return to some collage work, it really is my favourite way to create works of art.


Please come and join us by making an ATC (or two, or three lol) and share your inspiration at A Vintage Journey.

hugs Brenda xxx

Wednesday 20 August 2014

Hanging Heart – Create a story of soulful moments

Well August is marching on, I can't believe how quickly the months are going. Autumn is just round the corner.

I have an altered wooden heart for you today, you know the ones you can pick up for about £1.50 in the Range. I’ve tried to keep it fairly light in colour but with a vintage shabby style.
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Process steps
Scrape Fresco Finish paints in chocolate, stone, vintage lace and cream over the heart and let dry.
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Paint over some PaperArtsy metallic glaze and old gold FF paint.
Edge the heart with the old gold.
Splat a little victorian velvet and dried marigold distress stains on the craft mat and dip the heart in one colour at a time, mist lightly and let colour drip then heat dry, repeat for the next colour.
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Make up the embellishments – the book plate, heart, bottle, metal wings and top hat were given a coat of gesso to seal them. When dry they were coated with clear distress crackle paint along with the flower, bead and butterfly.
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They were all coloured with victorian velvet, dried marigold, rusty hinge and walnut stain distress stains.
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The muse token,pen nib and washer were given the rusted treatment using crafty notions rusting powder.
Blend some Onyxite treasure gold over the rusted items and the neck of the bottle.
Cut a star from the industrious stickers and push into the coffee archival ink pad to colour it brown.
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Distress the TH ticket, cut to shape to fit inside the bookplate.
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Colour the crinoline flower with the distress stains.
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Using the stuff to say set of TH stamps stamp the long set of words and cut out the ones you want for your personal quote. Edge them with walnut stain DI.
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Now we are ready to assemble it all together. I was tempted to add some stamping, remnant rubs and/or texture paste to the background but in the end I didn’t because I wanted the distressed elements to stand out on the grungy base.
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Hope you like my altered heart today, thanks for taking the time to stop by and take a look at what I am creating.


Sometimes the heart sees what is invisible to the eye.
H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
 
Enjoy the rest of the week.
 
hugs Brenda



Monday 18 August 2014

Nothing ventured, nothing gained – Positivity Journal

Hello Everyone, I hope you have had a good week. I thought I would share another of the altered playing cards that I have been making ).
Although I have been following the ideas and techniques from Stephanie Ackerman, I am using different colours and am using them in my small Positivity Journal. I have two to share over the coming week or so, both using the same design on the card, but different colour combinations on the pages.
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The background was made with tissue wrap, daubed with distress paints and wiped back in places with a babywipe.
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Sprays and masks/stencils create some great texture and contrasting colour …..
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…. and tissue tape adds another layer to the depth.
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A computer generated quote to help me remember to always try new techniques and look for new ideas.

Another one of these soon.

Have a fabulous week and take care.

hugs Brenda xxx

Friday 15 August 2014

Tag Friday - Cracked Seahorse

Today is Tag Friday with the winners' announcement at A Vintage Journey and I am contributing a seahorse tag as I just love the sea themed creatures on Tim’s dies.
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The background was made with Tim’s bubble embossing folder, inked before running it through the Big Shot and then spritzed with water and dipped in some more salty ocean DI. I heat dried it and gave some depth to the bubbles by painting them over with white linen dylusions ink.
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The starfish was cut from card painted with antique linen distress paint, edged with walnut stain and when dry a coat of rock candy distress crackle paint and some micro beads added to it. I love the texture it gives.
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The seahorse was given the same treatment minus the beads and inked over with walnut stain DI.
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I didn’t feel this needed many embellishments so I chose these two which I painted with antique linen DP before adding them to the finished tag.
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The seaweed was made by cutting up the fronds from some green card run through Tim’s waves embossing folder, dipped in some white linen ink and edges with walnut stain DI.
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Before bringing everything together I added some stamped text and distressed and inked the edges of the tag.
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I hope you will have time to create something for yourself and for our latest challenge ‘Tim Flies’ before it ends next Thursday.
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Have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by.

hugs {brenda} xxx