November Tim tag

The penultimate Tim tag for 2014, I can’t believe where the year has gone and to think it’s December tomorrow.

It was great fun looking for a different embossing folder and die for this make as I don’t have the layered leaf that Tim used and although I have the insects and the snowflake I wanted to experiment with other things in my supplies.

So I have gone for the French theme with the Eiffel Tower and a fleur de lys mover and shaper.

I have more or less followed Tim’s process steps but I added some foil sheet both to the embossed tower, fleur de lys and the corrugated card using a splatter stamp for the sticky embossing powder.

I also stamped on the corrugated card first which adds a little more interest.

I used some tarnished brass distress paint on the word band and arrow.

I am so pleased I have managed to fit this in before the deadline and am linking to Tim’s post.

Thanks Tim for another inspirational tag, looking forward to see what you share tomorrow.

hugs Brenda xxx

Birds of a Feather

Birds of a feather flock together

Those of similar taste congregate in groups

Hello everyone I am sharing a wall hanging today inspired by Tim’s papers, images and ephemera and the fact that he has a fabulous mixed-media team who create some wonderful pieces for inspiration. Chris has chosen this fabulous theme for our next challenge at A Vintage Journey and I decided to not go the Christmas route although you could do with robins and red cardinals. I have added some quick process steps below if you’d like to try the layered collage look.

Use a piece of corrugated card and a piece of wallflower stash as the main background.

Chop up some scraps ink edges and glue down.

Scrape gesso thinly over.

Add next level of collage pieces giving some strength of colour and starting the levels of dimension. Over that used dot fade  stencil and added texture paste through it using a palette knife. Add some random text stamping using black archival.

Layer further collage elements and the focal image of birds from the wallflower stash which I added to a cabinet card. I also added a bird card from the Thrift Shop ephemera pack.

At this point I die cut the letters using the alphabetical strip die and used this picture of these cheeky chappies who I thought fitted the theme perfectly and imagined they are best friends and very alike in their ways – hence birds of a feather flock together.

Finally use some gesso, walnut stain distress stain and spiced marigold to add layers of watery inks and added some white splatters

My bird wall hanging.

Thanks for stopping by to take a look. I hope you like my Tim inspired piece of art and that you will join us this fortnight.

Have a wonderful weekend.

hugs Brenda xxx

Love Christmas

A found relative, some glitter, bits and bobs and a card is born.

Another of my red, white and kraft designs for this year, I seem to be on a roll, I just love these colours.

The supplies consist of mostly Tim Holtz products, his merriment papers, a gorgeous vintage photo from the occasions found relatives pack, the pediment die, festive berries glitter and the trellis framework.

A few more details can be found over on the Country View Crafts project blog if you have time to pop over.

I hope your week is going well, thanks for stopping by.

hugs Brenda xxx

Update - copied over from CVC

Hi everyone, it’s Brenda again with another Christmas card for you.

This colour combination has really captured me this year and I have made several cards in this palette.

The fabulous occasions found relatives pack by Tim Holtz has these gorgeous vintage photos and I have combined this one with the pediments die and the festive berries distress glitter. The clear domes are from my own supplies and have pieces of the merriment papers glued underneath.

The love banner was made using a stamp and die from the framed silhouettes Framelits set and I stamped the word using my own small stick letter stamps. Christmas comes from the holiday words script thinlits dies using the stick it paper to adhere it to the card.

The lamp post was cut last year and not used and the leaves are from the festive greenery strip die. The trellis framework die-cut creates some interest and texture in the background.

How are you doing with your Christmas cards? I still have quite a few to make so I am sure you will be seeing more of them from me before the big day.

Sewn Snow Shoes

Did you know there is a challenge over at A Vintage Journey called ‘All Sewn Up’? Well I had such great fun designing and making my fabric journal I decided to use some new stamps in another sewing project.

This Christmas card has the focal image stamped onto fabric which I then tried my hand at free sewing on the machine. Practice makes perfect but I am quite pleased with the effects.

Sorry I got so wrapped up in using the sewing machine using the fabric and corrugated card I completely forgot to take any process photos. I had dipped the fabric in some distress inks to get the grungy colour on the fabric. I used the same inks on the corrugated card. I stamped the snowshoes using Tim’s stamps and did all the sewing through both layers of fabric and corrugated card. I finished off with a black pen to add the finer details.

I hope the photos tell the story.

Some lace, a painted snowflake charm and an offcut of paper folded and tucked in completed the card.

I am hosting the All Sewn Up challenge so I would love to see you over there with a project.

Thanks for stopping by.

hugs Brenda xxx

A Jolly Christmas at Country View Crafts

I hope you are having a good week. I am sharing a Christmas card over at the Country View Crafts Project Blog and it was inspired by the Magpie day theme last week – use your scraps.

I am feeling so happy making collage projects again, it almost seems as though I had lost my way craft wise this year, in fact I have spent a lot of time experimenting and playing with lots new ideas and styles, but it feels so good to be back.

More details about this card can be found at the Country View Crafts project blog, so if you have a moment to spare it would be lovely to see you over there.

Thanks for stopping by.

hugs Brenda

 

Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Update - copied over from CVC

HI everyone Brenda here and today I am sharing a Christmas card with you. The inspiration came from the current challenge at CVC challenge blog which is to use your scarps, so I decided to get the box of Christmas papers down and have a play. This is the result, a collage Christmas card.

I started with Tim Holtz postage stamp die and inserted a rectangle die so I could cut a frame.

I used core’dinations paper and took out one of Tim’s found relatives to use with it.

I used offcuts of paper to make my embellishments, stamped the word Christmas to go with the jingle flash card and punched the price tag from Tim’s merriment paper stash

The music paper is from an old music score book (I buy them from the charity shops) and I found the tickets and lace border in my oddments drawer.

I sanded the frame and cut down the gorgeous Santa photo to get it to fit….

… and bit by bit the collage came together.

The snowflakes are die-cuts using the paper snowflakes thinlits dies and I added the beads that I found in my Christmas bits box. The top snowflake twirls are florist wire.

To me the most important parts of putting a collage together are both the composition and the detail and here I white embossed the tickets, added stamped and cut out pen nib and a tiny circular tag with a weeny snowflake stamped on it.

I am so pleased to be getting Christmas cards done, but I still have a way to go.

 

Magpie Day at Country View Challenges

It’s an extra surprise day with some blog candy thrown in at Country View Challenges and the theme today is ‘use your scraps’

I have a huge box of scrap papers that I keep in my room and the box just gets fuller and fuller, every now and again I go through it and throw some bits that I think I won’t use, but I never seem to really make a dent in it. So it has been lovely to take a few bits out and make some Christmas cards.

I started by die-cutting the pieces from the Tim Holtz Retro Ornaments die and finding paper for the background.

Having cut everything, I inked the edges ……

….. stamped and cut out the sentiment, again inking the edges …….

… and layered the background on another mount before adhering to the card.

The philosophy here was that while all the bits were out and it is a fairly simple design, let’s make three rather than just one. In fact I have a bag of bits left over and I could probably get at least another four out of it, so when I have just a few spare moments I know what I will be doing.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope your weekend goes well.

hugs Brenda xxxx

All Sewn Up

Our latest challenge at AVJ starts today and we have an open sewing theme for you. I am hosting and my brief for you is  -

This is simple - a sewing inspired creation, any style as long as you tell us what the Tim influence is in your project, it could be that you have used a Tim technique, some of Tim's products, maybe you will case one of his tags but make it sewing based, you choose . Be adventurous and make whatever you like, it doesn't  have to include real sewing but must be focused within that theme.

I have chosen to use fabric to make journal covers and have used Tim inspired layers using distress inks, stencil, and stamp – and also some images from Tim’s Eclectic elements fabric range, ideaology, paper from Tim’s wallflower stash and his wonderful layered butterfly die. I also got out the sewing machine, but I definitely need more practice using it lol.

Background

I started with Tim’s monoprint technique using his layering stencils and distress sprays on plain cotton fabric but after several layers I decided I didn't like the result. So I got out another piece of fabric and started again.

2nd go

I daubed over some thin layers of gesso with a palette knife and dried them. Next I dipped the fabric in puddles of watery distress ink  and dried that layer. Then I added the harlequin pattern using Tim’s stencil with a mixture of evergreen bough and salty ocean distress paint ……

……and then grabbed the extra large flourish (from the fabulous flourishes set) and stamped with white gesso. Once dry I started to spray stains over but I was unhappy with the colour choices, so into the sink and under cool water I squeezed all the colour out. So I was ready to start again but with the same piece as it was back to neutral.

3rd background

This time I decided I would go the vintage route and chose stormy sky, brushed corduroy, gathered twigs and walnut stain distress stains, squidging them onto my mat and spritzed them with water I used a babywipe to gently blend the colours over randomly. As I was drying it with the heat gun I was turning the fabric over to heat both sides and this is when I noticed that I actually preferred the reverse side. I decided though that I would add some sponged gesso to lighten and brighten the front again and then stamp with black gesso.

It was at this point something amazing happened, I splattered the background with drops of walnut stain distress stain, but they looked too dark, so I spritzed them with water and rubbed them in a bit and before my eyes I began to get distinct water marks, large versions of the spritz and flick technique, so cool.

I was much happier with this piece.

Butterfly

I took some fabric and spray starched it, making it stiffer than it was, then dipped it in some distress stains, drying it off. I ran it through the die-cutter with the layered butterfly die and through the matching embossing folder. It created the embossed texture and with some light swipes of rose madder archival, the fabulous patterns showed up. To finish it I edged it with walnut stain distress ink.

Inside covers

I took a piece of canvas roll cut two covers to the size I wanted, sprayed with tattered rose and antique linen distress stains and also used some blue skies glimmer mist. The age spots were a stroke of luck as I keep a box for spraying in and the canvas picked up some bits of other colours that has been sprayed in the box on previous occasions. I misted it all with water to blend the colours together and heat dried. I stamped using black archival and the distress damask stamps, a text stamp and blended broken china distress ink through the harlequin mask to provide continuity with the front covers.

Creating the collage on the front cover

I cut the fabric background in half and pinned each part to another piece of the canvas roll. I layered a collage design using images cut from the eclectic elements range of fabrics, a piece of wallflower paper and some cheesecloth. These were all sewn on using my machine (please excuse the sewing, I haven’t used the sewing machine like this for ages and am right out of practice).

I then added some other embellishments sewing them on by hand.

… a rusted button and washer ….

… a rusted pen nib……

…. a wishbone with tissue tape behind it …..

.. a stamped title ….

… and the gorgeous layered butterfly.

The back cover

I simply sewed on some card and paper butterflies.

To complete the covers I layered up the fabric over the canvas, a layer of stiffened fabric to help keep the shape and an inside cover of canvas with some of Tim’s trimmings to create the tie.

Some eyelets and rings and some pages sprayed with distress stains finished it all off.

Now what shall I use it for ………………..?????

Phew, it was rather a long process but I am really pleased with the finished outcomes, the lovely soft and pliable covers feel lovely in the hands and because they are flexible they will stretch over embellished pages easily.

Thanks for sharing in my project today. I hope you like the fabric journal and maybe you will be inspired to try one for yourself.

Do take a trip over to the Vintage Journey Challenge blog and take a look at all the incredible samples that the Creative Guides have made to inspire you. I am sure you will find something to get you making and if you enter with a Tim inspired project you stand a chance of winning a £10 voucher from Country View Crafts.

Have a great weekend.

hugs Brenda xxx