Vintage milk bottle caps

Good morning fellow bloggers, thank you so much for all the lovely comments you are leaving on my posts, it is such a pleasure to sit and read them and to visit you as well and see such amazing inspirational projects from around the globe.  

One of the things I love doing is going and mooching round antique markets now and again and we have a good monthly market near us in Farnham, Surrey (UK). Last year I was intrigued by some old milk bottle caps I saw on a stall and was told they would have been used by the dairy to seal old wide neck milk bottles in the 1940’s. You can just make out a circle indentation that could be pushed through which would be used to insert a straw, apparently children wouldn't just drink the milk they would use these caps to make those woolly fluffy balls, so they were a toy too.

The ones I bought are all the same and are in mint condition and at last I have had an idea for a tag using one.

I had a corrugated tag part finished so I started with that …….

……. adding some stamping and I gathered various elements that I thought would go together to create a design. The 17 plaquette reminded me of a bottle chain, the mini number made me think of milk deliveries and house numbers, hessian for texture, a small shrink plastic bird in my box of bits reminded me of when I was milk monitor at school, we had foil tops then and the birds would peck through them to get at the milk. Some of Tim’s words stamped from the Little Labels set seemed appropriate and I needed a bottle.

Die-cut from the Apothecary set in white card, I dipped the bottle in a little watered walnut stain DI, dried it and then covered it in clear embossing powder.

Here you can see the shine and texture it created. In hindsight perhaps I should have added more layers of EP to make it smoother, but I quite like the way it ended up.

I really like the collage design too, I always look to create a balance between my elements and to 'bridge' some of them to create a flow that allows the eye to move easily around the design.

I hope your week goes well and that you have time to find some creative time.

hugs {brenda} x0x

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