Tim Holtz inspired at The Stamp Man

Yay the end of the week and the beginning of the weekend.

Today it is my turn to host the challenge at The Stamp Man and I am asking that you choose any of Tim's Tags of Christmas - (so that gives you 48 to decide from) - and use his techniques to create your own Christmas project, that could be a card, tag or altered item. Just tell us which tag you have chosen and the techniques you have used from it. This really gives you the opportunity to be as creative as you want, but with a TH Christmas theme.

I chose Tim's very first tag, which you can find here. If you want to go directly to Tim's home page to find the others you could choose from, then click HERE. Scroll down and you will find them listed under Categories.

The main technique I used was a crackle paint background. 

When this was dry I stamped over it and added torn music paper, ribbons and embellishments.

Tag 1 - The Snowman

Tag 2 - Christmas Snow 1

Tag 3 - Snowflakes

Tag 4 - Christmas Snow 2

Tag 5 - Santa Claus

Tag 6 - Merry Christmas

Supplies used -

Tim Holtz Crackle Paint - picket fence, old paper, tattered rose, brushed corduroy, brushed pewter, tarnished brass

Distress Inks - weathered wood, dusty concord, seedless preserves, black soot, tumbled glass, tea dye, pumice stone, chipped sapphire, tattered rose. stormy sky, vintage photo, bundled sage, barn door, antique linen, mustard seed, ripe persimmon

Tim Holtz stamps - mini holidays 2

 I hope we will see you over at Jill's great challenge blog entering your fabulous creations and please go take a look at some amazing work for you inspiration by my teamies.

I was lucky enough to be chosen as a Ginger Gem at Gingersnap Creations 

this week for my 'Ravens' piece.

Have a wonderful day and a great weekend.

luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

An Explosion of Colour

The PanPastels challenge this week is actually called 'Fireworks/Exploding Colours', but I wanted to show a variety of bright colours used as the background and more added in layers with masks over card and music paper.

This was achieved with just five of my PanPastels showing how versatile they are and how well they mix and blend together. I have stamped over the top and then added atyou spica black glitter pen over the top. The sentiment was stamped with Versamark and PPs tapped lightly over and then Sakura glitterpen over the top of that.

I have added a shabby fabric flower, cut the bird cage from patterned paper and then highlighted it with PPs, cut the bird covered it in Tim's tissue tape and again added PPs and a couple of die-cuts.

I just love playing and experimenting with these. I think I need to add some more colours on my Christmas list.

Stamps used with archival ink are TH Grunge Circe and Fairytale Frenzy.
Masks - Tando Creative - music and Spellbinders Impressabilities - Fleur de Lis

Another inspection finished at school, now I hope we can settle down and prepare for Christmas, it has been such a hectic term.

I hope you are enjoying your week and managing some art and craft work.

Oooh nearly forgot, remember my pumpkin tag was chosen as card of the week at Sugar Creek Hollow, well I've been asked to be a guest designer for them, so keep an eye out later this month for my piece, can't wait to show you what I am making.

Take care.

luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

PS Here is one of my cats asleep in my craft bag. He thinks he is a dog sometimes as he has to come and lay by my feet or be in close proximity. Like alot of cats he likes to get in boxes and bags when you aren't looking. Say hello to Tinder.

Shabby and Vintage Tags 1

Happy Friday Everyone - the weekend is upon us.

I am sharing some tags I made whilst I was away the other weekend for a few days in Swanage. I took a bag of bits with me which included some lovely images from the Graphics fairy and the Crafty Individuals booklets. (No stamping!!!)

First though I want to show you these great things I found at an antique market in Bridport and at Wimborne market.

The glass doored cabinet was very cheap at only £5, the thimble display box was only £2.50 and the smaller carved box was £1.50 - bargains don't you think? I also bought the little dress form, some sets of old keys, some cigarette cards and a tiny glass bottle.

I just loved this vintage picture of the little girl and  wanted to make the tag quite feminine but rustic at the same time.....

So this is tag number one. I had taken with me some pages from an old book and  bought some fabrics whilst I was there as well, so these all came together very nicely methinks. I cut out words and phrases from the book pages to give the tags a focus.

Tag 2 .......

..... now this one is very masculine. I used one of the old keys I bought and added some staples to keep the industrial feel to it.

There will be a couple more to show you another day.

Enjoy and have a great week. I am teaching at The Art of Craft in Farnborough (Hants) tomorrow - we will be making my vintage mini album. I hope you are all into fabulous crafty things this weekend.

luv and hugs {brenda} xox

Dark and Mysterious PanPastels

I haven't had a chance to enter the Panpastels challenge for a couple of weeks and this was definitely something I wanted to get done. The challenge is 'dark and mysterious' but being post Halloween I didn't want to use any spooky images, so I set about creating a dark and mysterious landscape using tissue paper, PanPastels, Crafty Individuals tree stamps and the birds are courtesy of T!m.

The next few photos will show you the stages of making this. I really wanted some texture for the landscape and the tissue paper worked really well.

Tissue paper torn into strips, crumpled and glued with matte multi-medium.

PanPastels added to give a darkish sky and dark landscape.

Stamps added to give the overall feel to the piece.

A larger tree stamped, painted with PanPastels and cut out.

I cut a little fence freehand.

And added the title of the piece.

Do you hear the whispers in the wind on a dark night?

Take care.

luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

PS My pumpkin/fall colours tag was chosen as card of the week at Sugar Creek Hollow and I have put a cute badge on my side bar. Thanks girls I am delighted to be chosen.

Times gone by

Today is the start of another Fashionable Stamping Challenge and this fortnight we would love it if you could join us and submit a card or project with the theme 'Times Gone By'. Now that leaves it wide open for any type of vintage piece that you are working on, how cool is that?

I have altered a small box and made it masculine and  know exactly who is going to receive this for Christmas - but I can't say at the moment. I used two different teal coloured paints, one I mixed myself and one was an ordinary household paint. I sprayed with ancient copper cosmic shimmer mist and then stamped and added some inka gold. I finished with Decoart gloss sealer, some trim, a charm and pieces I have picked up from car-boot sales.

Stamps by PaperArtsy, Michele Marsden. My Mind's Eye and Crafty individuals.

Photo overload now - I was trying to get a selection of pics from different angles. Do you like the boat? It came from an old Monopoly game.

I hope your weekend is going well. Please pop over to see the great inspiration from my teamies and join us. You never know you could be the recipient of a fabulous stamp as the winner.

Just before I go, please pop over to Dot's Dabbles. Dot is one of our fantastic designers at FSC and has candy available when she gets to 50 followers. I am sure you will be inspired enough to want to follow and go back time and again to see her fabulous creations.

lots of luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

Challenges to have fun with -
Inspire me Fridays - Anything goes
Our Craft Lounge - Distressed and stressed
C.R.A.F.T Challenge - Board games/family games/ activities (does my little Monopoly boat count?)

Collage for The Stamp Man

The new challenge at The Stamp Man has been set by the fabulous Angela and she would like to see you use collage or a collage background in your work. I loved this challenge and I learned quite a bit about different styles of collage when I did an on-line course with Claudine Hellmuth earlier in the year and I also get great inspiration from Sarah at Lah-de-dah.

What is a collage? Wikipedia says -

A collage (From the French coller, to glue) is a work of formal art, primarily in the visual arts made from an assemblage of different forms, thus creating a new whole.

A collage may include newspaper clippings, ribbons, bits of colored or hand-made papers, portions of other artwork, photographs and other found objects, glued to a piece of paper or canvas. The origins of collage can be traced back hundreds of years, but this technique made a dramatic reappearance in the early 20th century as an art form of novelty.

I thought I would make a book of birds for Ken for Christmas and add some of the photos he has taken of different types of birds he sees in our back garden. He is totally an amateur bird watcher and photographer, but he loves it, so what better way to give him something different this year.

This is the front cover of the mini album and I am using TH papers and stamps.

Main Supplies -
Tim Holtz stamps - slight alterations, urban tapestry
Tim Holtz paper stacks - crowded attic, lost and found
Distress inks - vintage photo, peeled paint, forest moss, weathered wood

As you can see I have used a number of techniques to create this collage - I have inked, embossed, gessoed, stamped, glued and sewn elements together. I have bought an old book of 'Eggs and nests of British Birds' so I will be using that to complete pages and pockets for photos - so more to come another time.

Please pop over to the Stamp Man challenge to see the fabulous inspiration from the team and I hope you will join us there. As ever Jill will be providing the winner with a £10.00 voucher for her store.

I hope you have a fabulous weekend. Hopefully I will be able to come and see what you have been making and creating this week.

Take care.

luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

Challenges to have fun with -
Simon Says Stamp - Buttons
Just for Fun - Favourites
PaperPlay Challenges - Button Up
Cooking It Up with Katie - Anything but a card
Anything Goes - Stitching
Artistic Stamper - Make your own backgrounds
Stamp with Fun - Buttons

Add something metal

Hi Everyone.

I have a tag for you today as my DT piece for the new challenge at Divas by Design and as the title says we want you to add something metal to your card or project.

My tag has been made using household paints and gesso. The paints were blended over the tag and left to dry. Using a credit card and some sponge the darker salmon coloured paint and the white gesso were added to create texture and depth. Once that had dried I added music paper and a Wendy Vecchi art parts heart which I covered in metal that I embossed using a 10 second studio kabuka mold and added some of the paint and colours of inka gold to give it a more mottled and shiny look.

Supplies -
- TH tag die
- Household paint
- Gesso
- Art parts heart
- 10 second studio metal sheet, kabuka mold and metal tools
Inka Gold - rose and haematite
- Metal bird cage embellishment
- Downloaded, inked and glazed butterfly
- Rub-ons
- String, music score paper, ribbon

I hope we will see you join us this fortnight. Please go take a look at all the fabulous inspiration from my amazing team mates.

Thanks for stopping by. Have a great day.

luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

Sentimental challenge at Stampalot

Woo hoo, I was asked to be a guest designer at Sir Stampalot this month and the challenge theme is to have a sentiment as the focus of your project.

I chose to make a tag and used my brand new Webster's Pages as the background, and my theme is ............................... yes you can see, it is to do with sewing again - just my most favourite of themes at the moment.

The sentiment is from PaperArtsy, stamped onto the background paper. The sewing machine is Maya Road painted with Fresco Finish gold and over stamped with a text stamp. I added some shabby ribbon ruffled along the top, a small hanger with ribbons, a tiny butterfly and sewed all round the edge of the tag to finish it off.

Well a big thank you to the Stampalot ladies for having me, I am off to see what inspiration there is on the Stampalot challenge blog.

Have a great November. It won't be long before Christmas is here.

luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

Ravens

Yay it's Friday and if this has scheduled correctly, I am away for a long weekend in Swanage. Hopefully I will have my laptop and will be able to log in from time to time.

This is my second piece I have made for the Gingersnap Creations Poe month and this challenge is 'Ravens'.

I have made a second hybrid piece which will no doubt join the Horror Stories piece in my art journal.

The background I put together in Photoshop elements using images from Scrapbookgraphics, they were perfect for what I wanted and included the title and raven at the top.

 I added to it by stamping the black raven to the left and the cobwebs using TH mini halloween and I cut out the bats, butterflies and eyes (from Graphics Fairy) and added the skull charm, spider and key.

I would also like to enter this into Corrosive Challenges - Flying things.

Have fun whatever you are doing and enjoy some crafty time of your own.

Thanks for stopping by, I really appreciate all the lovely comments you leave me.

luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox