UPA - What is shabby chic in art and craft RAQ

Welcome to Bumblebees and Butterflies, this is my second post today and if you haven't seen it yet I would love for you to scroll down one post to see a cabinet card album I made for Country View Challenges.

However over at Unruly PaperArts this month the focus is on 'Shabby Chic' (SC) with lots of information and inspiration during the month from the columnists, plus there are two Reader's Art Quests (RAQs) around the theme, one is' pink, cream and brown' SC projects, the other is 'SC in 3D'.

For my RAQ project I have used many elements to achieve the shabby chic look I wanted in a 3D dimensional project..

Pastel colours - mint green, pale pink, white, cream and walnut stain.

Flowers with glitter and butterflies with script stamping over them.

Some sewing elements keeping it feminine and a crackled heart.

Distressing the balsa wood box which has been painted white, rubbed down and brown distress ink added to give it an aged feel.

The pretty shabby paper has been edged with walnut stain to create the old and worn look.

Butterflies.

Pretty bottles and a cherub frame.

Tickets and cream roses.

Although not shown on these photos this box also has a slide-in lid which will keep all the cubby holes dust free whilst it is on display. Such a neat thing and it was a workshop I did last week, we barely had 3 hours to do it in, but the ladies took home the last little bits to finish it off, they loved what they made and they did a magnificent job.

I would like to enter this into the Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge this week, 'Into The Woods'.

I hope you have a great month of June and that the weather is kinder to us all in the northern hemisphere.

Take care.

hugs {brenda} x0x

Using die-cuts at Country View Challenges and Tutorial

Hey it's June already and that means a new theme at Country View Challenges. This month it was chosen by  Trace and she would like to see your projects using die-cuts

It's not often I am really pleased with what I have made, but I am today. This is a cabinet card album made with Tim Holtz dies Vintage Cabinet Card and Mini Cabinet Card.

This shows the front cover.

Here are the pages and ……..

the finished album.

Please don’t tell hubby he is the star of the show today, he has seen the album but doesn't look at my blog lol.

I have also experimented with using Windows Live Writer which is where the white base edge on the photos has come from - don't know why????? I am sure I will learn more about it as I go along.

So do you want to know how I made the album? My readers will know that I promised to work on some video tutorials, but no you won’t hear my voice as I have made this first one using photographs rather than a video camera. Still got to get that one organised!!

I hope this works ok.

I want to say a huge thanks to Chris who helped me learn how to get this video done, she went through every aspect with me both side by side on her laptop and then over the telephone too. Thanks Sis I appreciate all your time.

Thanks to you too for visiting today, have a great weekend and a fab month of June, I hope I will see you over at CVC during the coming weeks.

hugs {brenda} x0x

12 Tags of 2013 - second entry

The sun is shining its a beautiful morning and here I am, as promised, with my second tag for May and linking to Tim's 12 tags of 2013 where all the details can be found and where Tim demonstrates the techniques and shows how he put his tag together. There is also some amazing inspiration with the other entrants too, lots of beautiful colour, styles and designs, I always marvel at the different interpretations and I often say to myself, 'why didn't I think of that?'. 

Tag - Unforgettable

So you know what? Again, at first, I was not overly happy with what I had achieved with this tag, I liked the mix of stamps (still do) but I overdid the background and I didn't put enough rub-ons on. The effects were quite dull and drab.

What I did do though was have an inspirational moment as I was drafting this post and went back and added some white pen to lift some of the areas more. Yay, love it now, it looks so different. Shame I didn't get a before and after pic.

This is much more a shabby chic interpretation and I love the colours. By the time I had finished this tag made me very happy.

 Supplies used -

Distress Stains - Antique Linen, Weathered Wood, Brushed Pewter, Tattered Rose.

Distress Inks - Bundled Sage, Iced Spruce, Tattered Rose, Antique Linen

Archival Ink - Black, Blue Violet

Stamp sets - PaperArtsy HP1005, Stampin' Up Nature Walk, Artistic Outpost Ephemera Backgrounds

Rub-ons from my supplies

I am entering this into the Artistic Outpost Referral Programme - I am not sure it will qualify as it is not mostly AO stamps but the background one is.

I am off doing an alcohol inks beginner's masterclass today. I have designed a little book everyone can keep their samples in which will serve as an aide memoire for the future.

Have a wonderful day and rest of the week and if you are celebrating something special have an amazing time.

hugs {brenda} x0x

Practising Tim's 12 Tags of 2013 - May

I'm back again.

At last I have now been able to have a play at Tim's May tag. You can find all the details HERE on Tim's blog if you haven't already tried it for yourself yet. I love the way the rub-ons resist the distress stains but I didn't achieve the look I wanted, for instance I didn't get the mottling effects and the colours didn't blend as much as I would have liked them to, so you will see in a couple of days time that I had another go at this one.

Tag - Capture Life's Moments

I didn't have the enamelled tag so I used a large metal brag and gave it several coats of picket fence DP with a remnant rub in the middle. The clock was also given a coat of the same paint and then black stazon rubbed over the top to make the numbers and outline stand out more.

Once completed the rubs had resisted the stains and left some white areas but they didn't look balanced so I used a trick I had found worked so well on my second tag (to be seen in a couple of days), you'll see what I mean when I publish that post.

I also made this into one of my extended tags, which seem to have become a bit of a signature now, I love the extra size they give me to frame the tag and to provide additional room at the bottom that adds to the space I can use.

Supplies used -

Distress Stains - Festive Berries, Wild Homey, Peeled Paint, Weathered Wood. Broken China

Distress Inks - Mowed Lawn, Picked Raspberry Evergreen Bough, Dried Marigold
Distress Paint - Picket Fence

Archival Ink - Black
Memento Ink - London Fog

Stamp sets - all Tim Holtz - Mini Classics, Classics #2, Classics #3, Way With Words

Remnant Rubs - Elements, Numbers

It was a great day again with Andy Skinner at the Stamp Attic finishing our books to show the techniques we have learnt with him over the past couple of months. I shall see him again at The Craft Barn on Friday where we are doing a Gelli Plate workshop.

I hope you have had a great day, the weather has been fabulous hasn't it?

Thanks for popping by.

hugs {brenda} x0x

Bling it at PanPastel UK

Good morning and happy Sunday, hope it's a good one for you. This is the first of two scheduled posts today as I am off to The Stamp Attic for an Andy Skinner workshop finishing off the techniques book we hadn't got made. Later pop back to see the first of my May tags for Tim's tags for 2013.

Today at PanPastel UK we have a new theme and want you to show us some bling.

I created the background very simply by running some white card through an embossing folder and blending PanPastels over the top, it picks out the design so easily. I used Burnt Sienna Tint and a little Raw Umber.

I gathered together some simple papers and embellishments to create the focal point.

The frame was covered with distress stickles dry glitter and then I rubbed raw umber PanPastel over the top. The sentiment is one of the Tim Holtz remnant rubs.

I will be back later with my second of Tim's tags of 2013 entries. See you then.

hugs {brenda} x0x

Tag 2 for Country View Crafts

I am really late posting this today, so sorry but I thought I had written and scheduled this to go before I went on holiday and in fact I hadn't duh!!!!

This is my second piece for the 'How does your garden grow' challenge at CVC and was made to complement the first one (found HERE) with different colours but as an extended tag and the same backing  card.

Here you can see the background before I added the elements to it.

The background was made with distress paints - don't you just love them and their properties?  I used the technique Tim used on his April tag with a bit more wrinkle free distress to it. 

This stamp is from the Classics #1 set and here I used distress markers and picket fence distress paints to achieve the mottled effects on the pear and the dry-brushing around the edges.

The dragonfly was pained with distress paints too and you get some great results with them, they adhere so easily to the metal.

Here I used the TH banners and rosette dies, the bee again was given the same treatment as the dragonfly.

It's fabulous coming to see your amazing makes submitted for the challenge this month. If you haven't yet entered, please do, in fact enter as many times as you like with separate projects (linked to the theme of course) and you could be the lucky winner of the £20 shop voucher for Country View Crafts (don't forget it's free P&P as well as excellently priced products) and you could also be chosen in our TOP 3 and be a guest designer.

I had a great day with my Sis today, she is helping me find a way to make videos, technical stuff I don't understand, so now I've got to get a tripod and practice, but I hate the sound of my own voice so I can see it's gonna be a problem.

If you have seen my blog showing strange things in your blog reader or blog roll, don't worry I have been setting up Live Writer and it's had to do a quick post and delete it again to import my blog. Mind you all the blogs in my blog rolls have disappeared today so I've got some work to do there to put them all back.

Enjoy your evening (or rest of the day Terry).

 hugs {brenda} x0x

Alter It at FSC

Another new challenge at FSC today and this time it's use your stamps and alter something.

Beware a photo heavy post, so I hope you have a cuppa in hand.

I used an oldish wooden frame for this project and prepared it by sanding it down and priming it with white acrylic paint.

I cut a piece of designer paper to size from a 12 x 12 scrap pad and using a palette knife I scraped white acrylic paint over in patches.

Next I adhered some scraps in places and stamped some images in each section and then made up four mists the first being gold perfect pearls, the second was red interference perfect pearls and one drop of fired brick re-inker, the third was blush perfect pearls with several drops of  victorian velvet re-inker, the last one was made with dylusions cut grass and faded jeans re-inker. What fun I had mixing these up.

I applied decoart modeling paste through a harlequin stencil and left it to dry before using the sprays.

I sized some photos and converted them to black and white and cut out some stamped images and some vintage images to use for more collage.

The friends sentiment is from Crafty Individuals stamped onto tissue paper and adhered with matte multi medium.

To finish the frame I applied the modelling paste through the harlequin stencil again and used a palette knife to smear on some picket fence crackle paint. Once dry I sanded some areas so that I could then add walnut stain DI.

I kept the 3D embellishments for the frame so that I could leave the glass in.

This was the gift I took my friends we stayed with in California. Luckily they loved it and hung it on the wall right at the bottom of the stairs which are part of the living room.

Challenges to have fun with -

I am adding this as a second piece to the Simon Says Stamp and Show 'Little Paper' challenge.

Sugar Creek Hollow - Clean It Out (Nothing new on this piece, in fact some of it came out of the scrap box lol)

I am looking forward to seeing your altered projects over the next fornight.

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday and thanks for looking at such a long post.

hugs {brenda} x0x