Live Everyday

My project for the Country View Crafts updates blog today is an altered shadow box frame and more of those scrummy Tim Holtz goodies – I am so looking forward to when Susan gets the new CHA releases into the shop – but I feel a huge spending spree coming on lol.

The full details of how I put this together are over on the updates blog but here are some of the photos of the process.

I collected various items that might work together, but ended up changing things in and out before I was happy with the finished design.

Flowers made from crinoline.

If you have time I will be happy to see you at the CVC Updates blog, but thank you for stopping by today and sharing in my creative journey.

Thursday is our first Country View Crafts workshop date where I will be teaching my Vintage Tag Journal. There are still a couple of places if you are interested. Full details can be found HERE. We have specifically chosen a venue close to the M1 easily accessible from London and the South, the Midlands, Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire and most of Essex. I am looking forward to a fun day full of inky goodness and lots of Tim Holtz goodies.

Have a wonderful weekend and happy crafting.

hugs {brenda} x0x

Monochromatic #2 for CVC

 Firstly I want to extend a warm welcome to new followers who have joined me lately, thank you so much for taking the time to look at what I create, I will visit you too if the setup in blogger gives me a link to your site. I love to come and see what people are making.

This tag is my second DT piece at Country View Crafts Challenges and I kept to the monochromatic theme for this month.

For the purposes of this challenge 'monochromatic' means hues of one colour but as black and white are at the opposing ends of the spectrum you can use them too. We will also allow a skin-tone colour for anyone using images where flesh needs to be coloured. (I have found in my browser that my black archival looks blue on some of the photos, but that must be the light conditions when I used the camera as well as monitor colours - hope that makes sense).

I started by choosing flourish stamp from a Tim Holtz set and embossed it with clear embossing powder. I then blended pumice stone and a little frayed burlap distress inks over the tag, flicked it with water and heat dried it carefully. I then used black archival ink and stamped the gorgeous TH butterfly off the edges in two places.

Next I gathered all the elements I wanted to use and as I am at my sisters for a few days, I raided her supplies and found this gorgeous B-Line stamp called Rebecca.

After I stamped her on a spare tag and cut her out I watercolored using a range of browns, black soot and pumice stone and added a bit of antique linen for the flesh tones.

 

I also added some of the inks to the little bit of lace to bring it in line with the monochromatic palette I have chosen.

I used a TH ticket strip die and his chit-chat stickers for the sentiment.

 

I hope to see you over at the CVC Challenge blog and even if you can’t make an entry (or two) this month you will get lots of inspiration from the fabulous design team samples.

I went to my sister's for a few days but had to come home early because I have caught this horrible chest complaint that seems to be doing the rounds. I am trying to keep up to date with commenting but apologise if I miss something as I really am not on top of it at the moment. Hope you are all ok.

Thanks for stopping by ................

Dream your artistic dreams and fulfil your creative desires.

hugs {brenda} x0x

Me and You

I think I must be starting to think of Valentine’s day with a title like this.

My tag uses stormy sky and brushed corduroy distress inks with the spritz and flick technique to make the background. Over that I used Tim’s dot fade mask and blended through more of the same colours.

Here is the collection of pieces I gathered together to make up the design I had in my head.

The photos are from the Tim Holtz paper stash 8 x 8 Collage. The moth is from another of his set but can’t remember which one. Notice I didn't use the key in the end, although it looked ok in my head it didn't have the space it needed when I put it all together.

I used scraps for the photo mounts and other little embellishments.

The little pieces made up a small banner across the centre.

Are you beginning to think of Valentine's projects? We no sooner finish one festival and we are off on another.

What do you think of all the goodies Tim has been showing on his blog that will be showcasing at CHA? Oh my gosh, I am so pleased I got some craft vouchers for Christmas so I can buy some when they arrive. I just love the new butterfly and bee sizzix dies, made specially for me!!!! (I wish!).

Be inspired and creative.

hugs {brenda} x0x

The Funkie Junkie Bonus Tag #2

Before I show my tag(s) I want to say a huge thank you to Linda from the Funkie Junkie for organising this great seasonal challenge and for providing us with such fabulous inspirational tags to work with. I seem to have lost the ‘need’ to join in general challenges but I really enjoy looking at a project  (like Linda and Tim Holtz provide), reading how it is made taking it apart in my head and then using it as a creative starting point to make my own piece of art. Sometimes I ‘case’ the ideas and design, other times I go completely off at a tangent but whatever the outcome I have enjoyed the process and learnt something about the art or myself.

I love the snow flurries on the edge die, I only bought mine this year, so when Linda used it on her last tag I knew I wanted to use it too. I started with that as my main inspiration but also her larger tag, making mine into a match book thank you card. Like Linda I used some embossing paste through a stencil and the marbling technique using distress stains.

This project also gave me another opportunity to use the clearly for art and frosted film combination and I heated the snow flurries border after I had blended distress paint over it to create some fabulous wintry dimension.

Like Linda I also used some small snowflake stamps and embossed them in silver both on the outside …..

……. and on the inside.

I also used Tim’s simple sayings, stamping two of them in pine needles DI and covering them with silver EP which created this fabulous look.

I cut up a size 8 tag to create the mini one to sit in the pocket.......

...... and am keeping the card closed with a couple of TH mini paper clips.

Linda has the full details of this challenge on her tag 1 post but in essence make a tag or card etc. and take something as inspiration from Linda’s tag for your own make, link this up to her post and originally you had to enter all 12 challenges by December 22nd to be eligible for the draw, but Linda is extended this with two bonus round tags on the 21st and 28th December and everything now needs to be completed by the 8th January. Linda is very generous with her prizes so you could win a $50 or $25 voucher to her on-line store ‘The Funkie Junkie Boutique’ and even get a 15% discount over January 2014.

That's it I have now completed all 14 and have loved the whole experience. Thanks again Linda you have  given me lots of inspiration and it's been such a pleasure joining you on this journey.

I shall be away from my work desk now for nearly two weeks, but I hope to be creating and making as I am staying with my sister. AS long as the lap top allows me to do what I need I shall be around.

Dream your artistic dream.

hugs {brenda} xox

Tag for Country View Updates

Silly me, post-Christmas and New Year clear up and getting decorations away I forgot to post over at the Country View Updates blog today, but I am there now with a tag.

This was me playing with masking techniques again and having fun creating layers.

Thanks for looking and if you have time maybe you will pop over to the Country View Crafts blog to see the full thing.

Hope your week has started well.

hugs {brenda} x0x

InLinkz.com

Funkie Junkie 12 Tags of Christmas #12

Yay I’ve made all 12 of the Funkie Junkie tags this year and made myself a card for each one. All the other 11 have been given out so this constitutes my first Christmas card for 2014 (never been known before lol).
Please pop over to Linda's post to see her fabulous inspirational tag.

I have used all of Linda’s techniques and her design but my stamps and some embellishments are different. I just loved the gold and white look and this became the main inspiration for making this card. I got stuck trying to put it together and had to walk away from it but I am quite pleased with the final outcome now it is finished.

My starting point was with this fabulous Tim Holtz blueprint snowflake, embossed with gold EP.

I then stamped the sentiment and added the gold stars and had the same problem Linda had with heating the gold EP on the wet modelling paste, only mine bubbled far too much and looked really ugly. So in the bin it went and started again only this time I sprinkled the gold EP on the paste and then let it dry for a couple of hours, this time I was happy with it. This was the point when I got stuck and couldn’t see where I was going, so I left it overnight.

The next morning I started by making the shabby bow and finding something textural to go underneath it. I don’t have the snowflake strip die so I punched some small snowflakes out of gold paper and stated to place them on.

What next I thought? So I turned my attention to the edges and blended antique linen DI and then added some Stampendous aged gold embossing enamel around the edges, starting by heating it from underneath and then just finishing it off from the top once it had started to melt.

So far, so good, but what to put in the top right hand corner? I remembered some wooden hearts I’ve got in my Christmas box, so I continued to develop the heart and snowflake theme and added  Stampendous shabby white embossing enamel to it. The photos really don’t pick up the gorgeous sparkle it has. I found a gold bell to add to the bow and eh voila it’s done.

Well I’ve only got one more to make now. Don’t forget Linda has the full details of this challenge on her tag 1 post but in essence make a tag or card etc. and take something as inspiration from Linda’s tag for your own make, link this up to her post and originally you had to enter all 12 challenges by December 22nd to be eligible for the draw, but Linda has extended this with two bonus round tags on the 21st and 28th December and everything now needs to be completed by the 8th January. Linda is very generous with her prizes so you could win a $50 or $25 voucher to her on-line store ‘The Funkie Junkie Boutique’ and even get a 15% discount over January 2014.

Hope you are having a fabulous weekend.

hugs {brenda} x0x

The Funkie Junkie Bonus Tag #1

I loved Linda’s Thank You tag when I saw it and had it open on the computer when I started making this tag card. I shall be very specific in how Linda’s fabulous creation inspired me because this went off at a completely different tangent, I was just so keen to experiment again with Wendy Vecchi’s ‘clearly for art’ and Tim’s frosted film combination (as shown on Tim’s tag for December 2013), that this ended up nothing like Linda's BUT it is not only the frosted film that I like, it is also the distress stains, one of Tim’s stencils for the background; making this a thank you card, using the industrious sticker borders and the ‘hello friend’ stamp - quite a few of the things that came from Linda's original.

The background was made with tarnished brass and bundled sage by dipping the tag into them on the craft mat, then I used scattered straw DI with the cargo stencil and bundled sage DI with the harlequin stencil and finished off with some flicks and bottle top stamping with walnut stain DI. Later I added the stamped pen nibs in iced spruce but mow when I look at the card I think I over did it a bit.

The border sticker has treasure gold blended over it.

I love this feather, I used the writing desk die and cut it using the frosted film/clearly for art mix.

You can see the dimension of it here and the way it curls after it had been heated and shaped.

I again used my little trick of scratching into the film to achieve the texture I was looking for and I blended over watering can and coffee archival inks. I also added some antique linen distress paint to create some additional feathered looks and a sharpie pen drawn on and wiped off quickly down the spine to create the more used and aged look.

The ink bottle was cut from back corrugated card and when I went to split it the top piece came off in one piece so I decided to use it on its own. I painted on some antique linen distress paint to try and show some light shining on the glass, I added one of Tim’s vial labels and wrote ‘Thank You’ with a calligraphy pen. I then covered the bottle with glossy accents - in hindsight I should have covered the whole thing before I added the label, but you know what they say – hindsight is a wonderful thing.

The nibs were cut from some off cuts of the film left from the feather, covered with treasure gold and edged with coffee archival, the sharpie pen again achieves a little of that aged look.

Here is the Friend label made exactly as Linda did but I used gold embossing powder.

I used the tag to make a tall card, I added some tattered seam binding dyed with iced spruce DI and I think one of my aims for 2014 has to be to use up more of the large number of 12 x 12 paper pads I have.

Linda has the full details of this challenge on her tag 1 post but in essence make a tag or card etc. and take something as inspiration from Linda’s tag for your own make, link this up to her post and originally you had to enter all 12 challenges by December 22nd to be eligible for the draw, but Linda is extended this with two bonus round tags on the 21st and 28th December and everything now needs to be completed by the 8th January. Linda is very generous with her prizes so you could win a $50 or $25 voucher to her on-line store ‘The Funkie Junkie Boutique’ and even get a 15% discount over January 2014.

I’ve still got tag #12 and one more bonus tag to do and I will have completed the course, nearly there.

hugs {brenda} x0x