ATC Backer

Hi All
I thought I would show you what I have been playing with this afternoon. I have been slow at getting my ATCs I made at the beginning of the month off to The Stamp Man for the ATC swap. The main reason being is that I didn't have a decent stamp for the backer, so today I designed my own using Photoshop Elements.

I used a frame from the Graphic Fairy (I think) and a bee and a butterfly that are also downloaded and set out the info I wanted to include. Printed on strong paper and then cut and stuck on the back of the ATCs. Ken has brought me in some sticky back paper so I can print onto that in future and not have to use glue.

I am pleased with this design and know that it is totally personal to me.

Hope you have been having the lovely sunshine again today if you are in the UK.

luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

MAWTT Challenge 91 - Precious metals

Hi Everyone

Before I start on my project if anyone is going to the NEC on Sunday and would like to say hello, just leave me a message below. It would be great to meet fellow crafters in person.

This week at MAWTT it is my turn to host the challenege and I have chosen the theme 'Precious Metals'. I would like to see any project that includes a precious metal and the best-known precious metals are the coinage metals gold and silver and another is platinum.

I have chosen silver as the precious metal for my project, which is a page from a memories book I am making. When finished it will be for the wedding Ken and I are going to in Cyprus so that Richard and Sal can record the occasion. When I asked Sal what colour she would like she chose hot pink.

This page has the TH bird and cage made in embossed silver card and I covered the bird with black acrylic paint and rubbed some of it off so that it showed up more. As you can see my colour palette includes pink, silver, black, grey and white. Tucked in behind the the bird cage mount are three tags on which wedding guests will write a short message and I will include some photo and journalling mats for Sal to complete later.

Additional silver includes the corner mount, silver beads at the bottom of the cage and a silver chain and small silver key.

This week Merley Impressions are sponsoring the challenge and are giving away this fabulous prize for the winner.

So I hope I will see you joining in my precious metals challenge this week so I can come on over and leave you some love.

Enjoy the rest of the week.

luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

Challenges to have fun with -

Truly Scrumptious - Tags
Stampin' Sisters in Christ - Something hidden (3 tags)
Saturday Challenge - Anything but a card
Gingerloft - Die cuts/punches

Vintage typewriter

Oh what a beautiful morning, oh what a beautiful day ........

Good morning bloggers, it's a fabulous bright sunny day with clear blue skies and the cherry tree in the back garden is blossoming - what more could I ask for on my birthday?????

Firstly a huge thankyou to my teamies at MAWTT for their fabulous birthday cards and they can never tell me again they can't do vintage - they have all made me a card in my style and they really are the best. THANKS GIRLS.

Secondly is anyone going to Birmingham NEC next weekend? I will be there on Sunday the 27th, so let me know if you are around and we can say hello. I am already going to seek out Sarah - you must let me know where you will be Sarah!!
So onto my card for today. My inspiration came from the Gingersnap challenge - typewriters, with a monthly theme of the working world and Simon Says Stamp - which is Birthday.

The typwriter image is a download from the Graphic Fairy and I overlaid it onto some vintage text paper that I lightened and blurred in Photoshop Elements, cut with and mounted on spellbinders mats with some ribbon and a Graphic 45 background paper. For the sentiment I found a typewriter key font and downloaded, printed it out, edged with DI and stickles. Most of it has been stapled together and I added a small metal clip and a red paperclip to give more of the office feel to it.

Challenges to have fun with
Gingersnap Creations - Typewriters
Simon Says Stamp - Birthday
Crafty Cardmakers - Fabric
My Partner in Crafting Crime - Retro Cool
Ooh La La - It's a man thing
Little Red Wagon - Office Supplies
Really Reasonable Ribbon - One for the boys
A huge thank you to the girls at Play Date Cafe - I was chosen as one of the Fab 4 last week. Woo hoo.

Have a great weekend everyone.

luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

MAWTT Challenge 90 - Good Luck

Hi blogging buddies.

Today is MAWTT Thursday - and today our fabulous team member, Pami, has chosen the theme 'good Luck'. Please go to the challenge blog to see the fabulous inspiration from the team.

Another completely different style for me today, I don't think you could call it CAS but definitely less is more for me.

The black cat was stamped onto a cream ATC, edged with DI and stickles and added MS border edge. Small pieces cut from oddments of paper and also edged with DI and stickles. All stuck onto kraft card and three black gems added to the corner.

Supplies
DI - Walnut Stain
Diamond Stickles
Stamps - Personal Impressions and Just Rite
Coloured papers from my box of bits.

I might try some more like this as I quite like the style.

Our sponsors this week are the Funky Farm Srapbook Barn.

They are stockists of beautiful card making and scrapbooking goodies including stunning papers, buttons, ribbon, lace, pins, 6 x 6 paper pads, punches, flowers etc. Gorgeous Bo Bunny, My Mind's Eye, Martha Stewart, Echo Park, May Arts, Molly Blooms, FancyPants, Prima and many more!!!

They have a very fast and friendly service with a personal touch. Funky Farm offers FREE UK postage over £20.00, a loyalty scheme and regular newsletters with offers etc.
Why not give them a try?!
Save 10% off an order over £10.00 with the exclusive code: MAWTTBLOG

The prize this week is a £10.00 gift voucher to the store

Take care and thank you for dropping by.

luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

Challenges to have fun with -
Crafty Emmas - Men only
Aly's Sunday challenge - Anything goes
Paper Sundaes - Keep it simple
Papertake Weekly - Trio-tastic (3 black gems)

Award

Happy Sunday everyone, I hope your weekend has been going well and that you are having a good Sunday. I have had a lovely weekend with friends at the Pennyhill Park Hotel for a spa weekend and hen night for Sal who is marrying Richard in April. Ken and I will be travelling out with our good friends Margaret and Bill to Cyrus for the wedding, they are the parents of the groom. We had a fun evening last night with a meal and music and dancing at a club, finally getting into bed at 2.00pm.

I have been given this surprise award from Emma who is The Sparkly Fairy, she blogs some gorgeous soft, vintage work and I am so glad she found me, because I now have found her too.

I accept this award and now must thank the person who gave it to me and and link back to their blog. (Done)
Share 7 things about myself.

Award 7 recently discovered blogs the award and contact them to let them know.

So, Emma, I gratefully accept the award and here are seven things about me:
1. I have two children, both grown up and flown the nest. My son is married and I have 3 gorgeous granddaughters.
2. I have been married for 36 years and 'with' my husband for 40 years - I can't tell you how quickly these years have gone by.
3. I love foreign food whether that be Indian, Chinese, Thai, Mexican etc.
4. Currently I am listening to the album '21' by Adele, she has the most amazing voice.
5. My most favourite part of the world to be is the west coast of America and we are planning to take the whole family back to LA next summer.
6. I love experimenting with mixed media and the more I do, the more I find myself rooted in this genre of art.
7. I love blogging and have 'met' some wonderful people who have become distance friends, and for all of you who are reading this I thank you for your friendship through the www.

7 recently discovered blogs that I would like to award this to -
Donna at paper crows and dragonflies
Tracey at Running with Scissors
Irene - Eye see crafting
Lou at Crafty Lou's Small World
Brenda at Knitty Treasures
Pam at Crazy Stamper
Judy at Stamped Impressions

Got to get to bed now as I will not want to get up for work in the morning.

Have a good week.

luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

Compendium of Curiosities week 35 - Design Details

Oh my, this is the last of the CoC challenges and I can't wait to see what our fabulous hostess Linda, at Studio L3, has up her sleeve. My guess is that something will start at 6.00 am on Monday the 28th March and will be just as fab to do because we will be able to distress and grunge and use recyclable materials. At the same time we can sit and have a coffee, enjoy and have fun. Ok Linda I've used your hints - how have I done?

For my last piece I have made my version of a Bingo board.

My inspiration has come from -

Studio L3 - Design Details
Simon Says Stamp and Show - Metal

The Play Date Cafe - Blue, pink and orange
Art Impressions - Embossing

Supplies used -

TH Bingo texture fade

10 second studio metal

AIs - denim, butterscotch, red pepper, watermelon, pink sherbert

TH Lost and Found paper stash

Tissue tape

Hampton Art Stamps - Bingo stamp

DIs - worn lipstick, chipped sapphire, rusty hinge

Cosmic shimmers - rich gold, cosmic blush

Other - music paper, buttons, pin, metal flower brad, book binding thread, bead and fragment charm

On The Edge Die - Brackets

And my new Vagabond

I think the pictures tells their own story and the design details can be found on P.67 of The Compendium of Curiosities by the great Tim Holtz.

Please do go over to Let's Ink It Up and bookmark it for some challenges. They each last a fortnight which gives you plenty of time to enter and each of them has a fabulous sponsor. Although it is a Sunday start, that is Australian time, so if you are in the UK you will see it posted soon after 1.00 pm on a Saturday afternoon. The current challenge is EMBOSSING and will be open for another week. There is some great inspiration from A Team and Team B will be showing their fabulous makes the next Saturday, and I can tell you they are awesome cos I have seen them already.

I hope you are gearing up for a good weekend. I am off tomorrow morning to join my great friend Margaret, her future daughter-in-laws and some of their friends for a fabulous posh hotel and spa weekend. It is Sal's hen night celebration. We are going to the spa tomorrow afternoon for relaxation and treatments before going out somewhere later for a meal and music/dancing then heading back to the hotel. On Sunday morning we can use the spa again before making our way home. I think I will be very relaxed for work on Monday.

Take care, thanks for stopping by and reading my post.

luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

Surprise parcel in the post today - Pay It Forward

Woo hoo, just take a look at what I got in the post today. This is the most fabulous journal that has been made by my blogging friend Zoe. Zoe I can't thank you enough for this wonderful gift and your thoughtfulness with the sentiment behind it. Do pop over and see her fabulous creations at This Little Place.

Zoe knows I used to love my holidays in Swanage with my Mum and the whole of this fabulous project is to do with holidays in Dorset and being beside the seaside. This will be a treasured book Zoe and I will keep it specially for journal notes, sketches, ideas and pictures of the seaside. It will become an inspiration for art work relating to that theme.

This all came about back in January when I commented on Zoes blog when she post about the 'Pay it Forward' idea to make and send something to someone who left a message and also promised to take part. I blogged it at the time but no-one took me up on it, but it's not too late. If you would like me to make you a surprise something then let me know in the comments box below and you must be prepared to do the same for someone else and blog it too. If you have already blogged the 'Pay It Forward' message then let me know as I am sure it will count.

Thankyou for the lovely tag too Zoe and your sweet message.

Luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

MAWTT Challenge 89 - For a male.

Hi Blogging friends. Today the challenge at MAWTT has been set by the lovely Lisa and she wants us to make cards or projects with a male theme. We were given some images to play with from our sponsor this week, Ellephantastic, and I had great fun with mine. You know me, I like to change the style to vintage if I can and this modern digi became Rory the footballer from years ago.

This is quite a simple card for me but you can't really embellish a boy card very much can you?

Supplies used -

Backing paper from DCWV
Footballer and football boots Habico embellishments and grunged up.

One brad

Image coloured with promarkers and then washed over with frayed burlap DI.

Do go check out the  samples from our fabulous DT at MAWTT and our sponsor at http://www.ellephantastic.co.uk/

Hope your week is going well and that you are managing to get some crafty time.

Take care.

luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

Challenges to have fun with -
Crafty Ann's - Birthday Card
Allsorts - Card for a teenager
Aly's Sunday challenge - Anything Goes
Paper Sundaes - Stripes
Creative Card World - Male
Creative Card Crew - No flowers
Stamp Something - Digi Week

The Stamp Man ATC Swap

As part of the DT team at The Stamp Man I make an ATC every month to fit the theme chosen for the Stamp Man ATC Swap. I have never ever entered a swap for anything, so I thought I would take the plunge and make 2 more Wise Words ATCs and I am going to send them in to take part.

For the photography one, in the middle, I made a special backing paper using old camera adverts and steampunk images. I stamped a camera and saying using Creative Expressions Vintage Photo set straight onto the paper and also used the same set to stamp a mini negative onto acetate and cut out.

The creating yourself one uses the TH mini classic set of stamps and a Crafty Individuals image and butterfly wings which were cut out and added to it. DIs used were worn lipstick, frayed burlap and walnut stain.

I really enjoyed making some smaller pieces of art and hope that Janet will be happy to accept them into the swap, and I am really looking forward to seeing what I get back. If you haven't seen the swap before or haven't entered this month, please have a go and enter some mini art of your own. The swap details for posting etc can be found  here.

Hope your week has started well.

Take care and thanks for stopping by.

luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

Challenges to have fun with -
A Spoonful of Sugar - Vintage / Shabby
Creative Card Crew - No Flowers (The 2 ATCs added today do not have any flowers on them)

LIIU Challenge # 10 - Embossing

Wow, this is my first post for the Let's Ink It Up challenge blog and I am very nervous. There is some amazing talent and fabulous creativity in this new team I am part of and oh boy, you just gotta go take a look at what Team A have made to inspire you, and team B will be there for the second challenge on the 20th March, Australian time that is.

The theme this fortnight is 'Embossing' and I really struggled with this one, just because I wanted to make something special. I am quite pleased with the outcome, but it took me too long to make and too many attempts at different bits of it that I lost my excitement for it.

You will see I have used both dry and heat embossing and I have taken pics to show you these two techniques.

I ran the music paper through the embossing folder just on one corner and brushed it over with DI so that the design popped out more.

The butterfly, sentiment and bird were all heat embossed. The butterfly has some stickles added to it as well. I stamped onto water colour paper and then painted in the wings with DIs.

Here is a pic that shows a close up of the butterfly and sentiment together.

I feel the frame gives the whole piece a focus and the hessian and embellishments give texture and dimension.

I hope to see you on the challenge entry list so I can come and see what you have been making too.

Supplies used -
Stamps - Butterfly - Martha Stewart, others - TH urban grunge
Cuttlebug embossing folder - leaves
Wow embossing powder - pepper regular + clear
TH caged bird die
DIs - dried marigold, forest moss, vintage photo
Vintage frame download from the Graphics Fairy
Music paper, hessian and muslin from stash

Challenges to have fun with -
Corrosive - Distressing
Stamptacular - Add a frame
Created by hand - Texture
Creative Inspirations - In the garden